The Wild West of the Seattle Waterfront
A dangerous 1877 standoff between captains reveals a lawless, unregulated harbor where ship lines were a hazard to life and limb.
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.
The City Council should pass an ordinance prohibiting vessels from running lines athwart the slips, even if it is blowing roughly. Yesterday evening, the bark had a line stretched across the slip from Yesler’s wharf to Crawford & Harrington’s. Capt. Wright blew the whistle and sang out, 'Let go that line!' until his boat struck it with her mast and parted it. No damage was done to the bystanders, as good luck would have it. These slips are occupied by the steamers J. B. Libby, Zephyr, Nellie, Messenger and Success, and no master of any vessel has the right to stretch a line across such a slip, unless he puts some man to watch and slack it down when desired. The wharves are open to all vessels that pay dockage, and if such practices are allowed to continue, somebody will get hurt. In the absence of a State Board of Harbor Commissioners, we believe that the City Council has full power to legislate so as to prevent the recurrence of such affairs in the future.
“The truth is, these captains of coasters have most of them got rich on nothing and cannot stand prosperity. And when they get into a little port like this, they think they can do as they please.”
Long before modern port authorities and strict safety regulations, Seattle's waterfront was a chaotic, competitive arena where private property and public safety constantly collided. Today, while we have robust maritime law, the tension between industrial needs and urban access remains a central theme in Seattle's waterfront development.
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