The Shipwreck of the Persevere
A vessel founders near Cape Flattery, leading to a precarious encounter with local tribes and a recovery effort by Indian Agent H.A. Webster.
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 brig Persevere, formerly under Danish colors, but lately under the New Granadian flag, foundered at sea, some 40 miles south of Cape Flattery, on the 16th inst. The brig was commanded by Capt. Byrne of San Francisco, and was bound to Victoria with freight—some 200 tons of goods—and thence to some of the mills on the Sound to load for Valparaiso. Capt. Byrne, with his crew, ten all told, took to their boats with such articles as they could hastily gather, when the brig sunk, giving them hardly time to escape the vortex caused by her sinking. They then made for land, and reached it in safety about four miles below Flattery rocks. Here the Indigenous people took their boat and all the things they had, but the Captain prevailed on them to take his party to Tatoosh Light, and they were fortunately taken off by the steamer Sierra Nevada on the 17th inst. and carried to San Francisco. On the 20th inst., the keeper of the light went down and recovered a portion of the stolen property, and on the 23rd, H.A. Webster, Esq., the newly appointed Indian Agent, with J.G. Swan, Esq., went to the village and succeeded in arranging for the safe delivery of the remainder of the property, consisting of a fine boat, a sextant, a quadrant, sail and oars, and a variety of other matters which the Agent will hold subject to the order of Capt. Byrne. The Indigenous people are said to have behaved in the most respectful manner to Agent Webster and Mr. Swan, and were very ready to comply with the Agent's demands.
“They then made for land, and reached it in safety about four miles below Flattery rocks. Here the Indians took their boat, and all the things they had.”
Shipwrecks along the rugged Washington coast were a frequent reality for 19th-century maritime commerce. The role of J.G. Swan, a noted ethnographer and agent, highlights the intersection of early colonial administration and Indigenous coastal life that remains a complex layer of Washington's history.
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