The Great Sailor Shortage: Why Seattle’s Labor Market Was Starving for Hands
In December 1876, the city faced a paradoxical crisis: despite the suspension of summer logging work, sailors were vanishing from the docks. Commissioner Ballou reported that a single crewman was worth more than a pair of jacks in poker, as wages had to be inflated just to secure basic maritime labor.
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.
SAILORS WANTED.
We learn from Commissioner Ballou, that sailors were never so scarce in Seattle, as at present. He shipped four men for Port Gamble on Thursday and two for Tacoma, and ever since that time he has been trying to get six men for Seabeck. It would be supposed that the partial suspension of summer work in the logging camps, would have thrown surplus men into the field for chances of this sort, but such is not the case.
Sailors are very scarce and one "Jack" at Mr. Ballou’s office is worth as much to the finder as a "pair of jacks" would be in a game of poker. He has been on the lookout for them in every direction but they won't come into court, except heavier wages are paid them, than the ruling rates of the past two months.
This 1876 report captures an early instance of Seattle’s recurring labor volatility, where boom-and-bust cycles in resource extraction (logging, mining) created sudden shortages or surpluses of workers. The dynamic described—employers forced to bid up wages for scarce skilled labor while competitors poach staff—is a familiar rhythm in modern tech and housing markets, where talent scarcity drives costs skyward.
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