Fifteen Stowaways Discovered in Hyades Cargo Hold
After two weeks at sea, a search of the steamship Hyades revealed fifteen Japanese stowaways hiding among the freight.
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.
Fifteen Japanese stowaways were landed at the detention office in Port Townsend yesterday by the officers of the steamship Hyades. They will be kept in confinement until the vessel leaves for the return trip to the Orient, when they will be sent back home. The second day after leaving Yokohama, two men, not members of the crew, were discovered on board. The next day four extra men appeared, and the day following two more were found. The officers then ordered an investigation, with the result that seven more were found stowed away among the cargo. Some of them had remained in their hiding places for three days without food. Others, it is said, were furnished with food by the Japanese cooks. Upon arriving at Port Townsend, the fifteen stowaways and the two Japanese cooks were placed in charge of officers for safe-keeping until the Hyades returns to Japan.
“Some of them had remained in their hiding places for three days without food.”
This story highlights the intense scrutiny of migration at Pacific ports in 1904. It echoes contemporary tensions surrounding border security and the criminalization of irregular migration, reminding us that detention centers have long been an instrument of state policy in Washington.
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