A Black Skiff, a Stranger, and a House That Burned
A Whidbey Island man rowed out with an unknown companion on a windy February afternoon in 1895. Neither was seen again — and six days later his house went up in flames.
The mystery surrounding the strange disappearance of John G. Phinney, of Phinney, continues to deepen, although sanguine relatives and friends are still fostering faint hopes that he may yet turn up safe and sound.
On February 19 Mr. Phinney was seen to leave his place on Whidbey Island in a small black skiff with one mast. As far as can be learned, neither Mr. Phinney nor his companion has been seen since. He was accompanied by a strange man. Quite a strong wind was blowing at the time, and it is thought by many that both men were drowned.
On February 25, six days after his disappearance, Mr. Phinney's house was burned. A thorough but unsuccessful search has been kept up. The agent of the Tulalip reservation has Indians searching the beach for bodies, and Sheriff Monk, of Island County, is also working on the case.
C. N. Bennett, of this city, who has been employed on the case, came back Tuesday night. He had made a thorough search of the beach, finding nothing that would tend to clear up the mystery.
“Quite a strong wind was blowing at the time, and it is thought by many that both men were drowned.”
Whidbey Island is still a place where a small boat and a bad wind can swallow a man, and the Sound still gives up its dead slowly or not at all. A century on, the case reads like a modern missing-person file: a suspicious companion, a fire six days later, and two agencies combing a beach for remains. Nobody was ever charged, and no trace of Phinney was recorded.
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