Explosion on the Skagit River
A boilers explosion on a passenger steamer leaves eight dead and others wounded while commuters were at dinner.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On the 17th day of the month the steamer Josephine left Seattle, W. T., and sailed for the Skagit river. The next day, when off Port Susan bay, her boiler exploded. The passengers were at dinner. The crown sheet of the boiler went straight up through the forward cabin and pilot house, blew the man at the wheel high in the air, killing him instantly. Two men were waiting at the dinner table, directly over the boiler, and were blown to atoms. Neither the Captain, the purser nor the fireman could be found afterward. Eight persons were killed and many more were wounded.
“The crown sheet of the boiler went straight up through the forward cabin and pilot house, blew the man at the wheel high in the air, killing him instantly.”
Steamboat travel was the primary way of navigating the Puget Sound region in the 1880s, but industrial safety standards were notoriously lax. This disaster serves as a grim reminder of the risks faced by early transit passengers before the advent of strict federal maritime inspections.
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