The Engineer Who Vanished Into the Sound
A respected steamboat captain’s sudden disappearance in October 1878 sparks a desperate search and a grim theory of accidental drowning.
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.
Thursday, October 19, 1878.
The mysterious disappearance of Mr. H. J. Jones, engineer of the steamer Nellie, has created deep anxiety in this city. The incident occurred last Saturday night while the vessel was moored at the wharf. Jones had gone ashore for supper and reportedly told his friends he would not return to the boat until late Friday morning.
When the engineer should have been on board at the usual time, he was nowhere to be found. Some conjecture that he had drowned. A search party went down to the boat at a later hour and, finding it a little distance out from the wharf, picked up a board thrown across it. They attempted to cross on it, when it broke and precipitated him into the water.
As no other development has proved to the contrary, this theory has been generally accepted as the most probable explanation of his mysterious disappearance. A search was instituted yesterday in the dock by means of a grappling hook, but without avail. If his remains are ever found, it will probably be some time here in the vicinity of Sandy Point, or Houghton's Cove, whither they would have been taken by ebb tide, as the current near that way is very strong.
The deepest anxiety is manifested by his numerous friends and relatives in this city. Mr. Jones, we are informed by Captain Wright of the Nellie, was about forty-five years of age. He was formerly employed for a long time on the upper Columbia River, where, by his steady habits and good conduct, he won many friends. Leaving there about three years ago, he was engineer of the Zephyr for two years and a half, and afterward took the same position on the Nellie.
As an engineer, he was thorough and painstaking in his business in all its details, most punctual in the discharge of his duty, and exhibited those little qualities which commended him to the friendship and honorable portion of society.
In an era before reliable radio communication or modern search-and-rescue protocols, a single night on the water could erase a man from existence. This story highlights the precariousness of life in early Seattle, where the boundary between work and death was often just a slip on a wet deck or a sudden current.
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