Tacoma Manager William Roberts Drowns in Rowboat Capsizing
A husband and father drowns in sight of his family after a small boat capsizes off New Amsterdam.
Tacoma—Coroner Brown arrived in the city Saturday morning with the body of William Roberts, a local manager for the exporting firm of Kerr, Clifford & Co., who drowned at a point known as New Amsterdam, between Tacoma and Olympia, on Friday. Mr. Roberts, his family, a guest named L.W. Allen, and a cook had left the city Tuesday for a month's cruise on the sloop Wanderer. While becalmed, Roberts and Allen boarded a small rowboat to tow the sloop to shore. When the men attempted to change places, they surged to the gunwale, capsizing the craft. Allen, aged 60, swam to shore. Roberts, likely rendered insensible by hitting the boat, made no effort to swim. Despite his wife throwing a rope and the cook offering a broom handle, he sank from sight. The body was later recovered at low tide.
“His wife threw a rope to him, and the cook held a broomhandle within two feet of his arm, but he made no motion to lay hold on either.”
Boating accidents remain a poignant, recurring reality in the Puget Sound region, where the cold, unpredictable water demands constant vigilance. This story captures the absolute fragility of life in an era where maritime travel was both a common leisure and a daily danger.
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