The Deadly Pressure on Puget Sound Steamboat Captains
Shipbuilder John K. Barr argues that owners and agents, not sea conditions, are the real culprits behind marine disasters.
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 report that Captain Roberts forced his boat after she began taking water, and thereby precipitated the disaster, when, by taking it easy, he might have brought her to port, has been discussed by steamboat men from one end of the Sound to the other. John K. Barr, a well-known vessel man and shipbuilder, told The Times that steamboat captains should not always be blamed for taking the chances they did. In a great many cases, the agents or owners of a vessel will compel the captain to make trips in stormy weather and take chances with a boat when, if the matter was left to their own judgment, they would not attempt to take the boat out. 'On a regular run like that of Captain Roberts,' said Mr. Barr, 'the captain knows that the holding of his position depends on making the trips on schedule time. If Captain Roberts had put back into port, he would have been called weak-kneed and white-livered. I tell you, it takes a brave man to do what he knows is right in the face of ridicule. The people who are directly responsible for many of the terrible marine disasters are the owners and agents of vessels, who compel the officers to take undue risks.'
“Any man can make a foolhardy attempt to force a vessel across a dangerous passage, and if he succeeds people call him brave and nervy. But the bravest man is the one who would put his vessel back.”
This critique of maritime management mirrors modern concerns regarding gig-economy safety, where workers are pressured by algorithms and schedules to ignore hazards. The Clallam disaster remains one of the most significant maritime tragedies in Pacific Northwest history.
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