The Waterfront Showdown of 1877
A mob attempts to forcibly eject Chinese laborers from a coal ship, but is repelled by a quick-thinking mate and his revolver.
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.
Last night at about nine o'clock, a number of ill-advised, loutish individuals went aboard the ship Atlanta, which was taking on coal at the Talbot bunkers, and attempted to take charge in the absence of the captain and first mate. A portion of the crew and a number of Chinamen were at work at the time, discharging ballast on the wharf under the superintendence of the second mate, when the mobbish party sprang aboard and ordered the Chinamen to quit work instantly and leave the vessel, the foremost one shouting with an oath that they were going to put a stop to this right here. The second mate, deeming valor the better part of discretion, made no reply but hastened off unobserved to the mate's room and apprised him of what was going on. He sprang out of his berth and seizing a six-shooter, hurried to the deck, where he found the turbulent fellows loud in their demonstrations of what they were going to do. He didn't stop to parley, however, but drawing his revolver on the ringleader, ordered him and his gang to leave at once on the peril of their lives. At this, the fellows being disconcerted, hied away like hares before the beagle. The mate, supposing the affair was all over, went below soon after; but was quickly summoned on deck again and found another one of the crowd on deck trying to run the Chinamen off. He appeared very defiant when the mate ordered him to leave, but as soon as he found the persuasive six-shooter leveled at his head, with the announcement that he'd get the contents of it if he was not off in half a minute, he made a hasty retreat, threatening, however, to do some serious damage to the mate at no distant day.
“They were going to put a stop to this right here.”
This 1877 report captures the violent nativist tensions that defined early Seattle, mirroring how labor disputes and anti-immigrant sentiment continue to periodically resurface in local political rhetoric. The Talbot bunkers, once a site of coal export, are now long gone, replaced by modern waterfront infrastructure, but the struggle over who is 'allowed' to work in our city remains a hauntingly familiar theme.
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