The Riverboat Collision: A Seattle Near-Tragedy
A steamship crushes a local canoeist in Seattle's harbor, yet the collision ends with a quiet, miraculous survival.
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.
As the steamer North Pacific proceeded up the harbor yesterday to turn, as usual, a Siwash in a canoe got across her bows just as she came abreast of the ferry. The steamer’s paddles were stopped, but it was too late. The Indian seemed frightened, and the Pacific struck the canoe stem on, and it was, of course, utterly smashed. But the Indian rose from the water, and clutching a piece of the wreck, floated very quietly until picked up by the ferry boat, which carried him back to the other side of the harbor, none the worse for his ducking.
“The Indian rose from the water, and clutching a piece of the wreck, floated very quietly until picked up by the ferry boat.”
This 1876 account captures the precarious intersection of early industrial maritime traffic and the long-established use of the waterfront by Indigenous people. While the newspaper's period language reflects the era's dehumanizing racial labels, the story highlights how the rapidly changing Seattle waterfront was becoming a site of daily danger for those navigating the waters in traditional ways.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.