Dredging Up the Past in the City Waterway
Human remains and a rusted knife are unearthed from the Tacoma waterfront, likely belonging to a sailor from a ship that capsized years prior.
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.
While the dredger was working yesterday afternoon in the city waterway, it dug up the bones of a human being from the bottom of the Sound. They were forced through the pipes to the mud flats south of the Fransioli warehouse, where they were found in a heap, partially covered with mud and water. A pair of blue overalls and a rusty pocketknife were found with the skeleton. It is thought along the waterfront that it might be the skeleton of a sailor who had fallen overboard, or a victim of the British ship Andelanu, which turned turtle in 1899. The skeleton was buried today in the potter's field.
“The bones all came through the pipes at the same time and were found in a heap.”
The City Waterway has undergone immense changes, yet the practice of uncovering the 'ghosts' of maritime industry through dredging remains a persistent reality of Tacoma's industrial shoreline.
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