The Fiery End of the Steamship Mississippi
A historic blockade runner turned coal vessel is lost to a massive wharf fire in Seattle.
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.
At 2 o'clock this morning, smoke was seen issuing from the oil rooms of the Mississippi, which lay on the railway side of the Union Improvement wharf, almost loaded with coal. In very short time, the fire had spread all over the ship and in five minutes she was enveloped in flames. Capt. Holmes had her cut loose from the wharf, but the wind blowing from the south held her jammed against that structure, which soon took fire. Several men on the Mississippi had to jump overboard for their lives, and it is thought they were all saved. The ship and her cargo is a total loss. The most serious loss, in reality, is a 600-foot section of the coal wharf and incline, which will have to be rebuilt before further shipments of coal can be made. The Mississippi was an iron screw of about 1,200 tons burden, and was built for a blockade runner during the war. Capt. Holmes thinks the fire was caused by the spontaneous combustion of waste in the oil room.
“Had there been some vessel or tug in port with steam up the Mississippi could have been turned out into the stream and the wharf saved.”
The Union Improvement wharf was a major hub for the coal trade that defined Seattle's early industrial boom. Today, the Central Waterfront is undergoing a massive transformation, but the hazards of flammable cargo and the dangers of maritime labor remain an enduring, if modernized, facet of life on the Sound.
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