The Disappearance of James Goodwin
A cook vanishes from the steamer Yakima while en route from Snohomish to Seattle, leaving behind a mystery that leaves the local authorities puzzled.
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.
Your town health captain reports that on the evening of the 3d, as the steamer Yakima was coming up from Snohomish to this port, the cook, who went by the name of James Goodwin, mysteriously disappeared from the boat. The captain surmises he had fallen overboard in the darkness and made no sign. When discovered, at the time the boat was off Apple Tree Cove, he was not in the galley, and in the morning his cap was found in the pantry, but no other trace of him could be found. He was aiming to go to table here a short time since, on a summons to attend as a witness in a lawsuit to come off at Port Townsend next session of court, and it is supposed he leaves relatives in San Francisco, where he had his home. Reporters of that city are, therefore, requested to note this item.
“The captain surmises he had fallen overboard in the darkness and made no sign.”
This 1876 report of a vanished transit worker echoes the persistent, often overlooked dangers faced by those in the maritime and service industries in the Pacific Northwest—a region defined by its reliance on the water and the frequent anonymity of its transient workforce.
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