The Steamboat Betrayal
A local captain accuses Ottawa officials of reneging on a mail contract after he already invested in the route.
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.
Capt. Wright, of the steamer Eliza Anderson, has received shabby treatment at the hands of the Ottawa officials. He states that the latter held out inducements some months since that if he would put on his boat he should have the mail contract at a reasonable rate. The captain commenced running his boat, and in April put in a bid of $10,000 per annum for the proposed work. The officials asked him if he could not put in his bid at a little lesser rate, and after thinking it over again he put in a bid of $8,000. The officials, without saying anything further, went to dickering with the other boat, and after some three months it is given out that the contract is awarded to the latter at $8,000 less, and this, too, after Capt. Wright was given to understand that he was to have the contract. The company's bid, it should be remembered, was $14,000 in the first place. Capt. Wright thinks the way would not, even at this time, have obtained a daily mail had it not been for him, and, all things considered, he does not appreciate the situation.
“The officials, without saying anything further, went to dickering with the other boat.”
Contract disputes and the frustration of dealing with distant bureaucracies remain a staple of the maritime industry in the Puget Sound. Capt. Wright’s experience highlights the volatility of early Pacific Northwest transportation markets where routes were often built on handshake deals and political promises.
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