The Aigburth Runs Aground
A British vessel encounters trouble in the heavy swells off the harbor bar, sparking a tense rescue effort.
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.
Early Monday morning, Captain Lilliquist of the schooner Charles Hanson sighted an English vessel in the breakers about six miles north of Gray's Harbor bar. There was a stiff gale blowing, and the vessel was showing signals of distress. Captain Lilliquist and the captain of the tug Traveler tried in vain to go to the rescue, but they could not do so until Tuesday morning when they went out after the schooner. The vessel proved to be the British ship Aigburth, from Liverpool, consigned to the P. J. Martin Company. She was pulled into deep water, and proceeded to Portland.
“There was a stiff gale blowing, and the vessel was showing signals of distress.”
Navigating the 'Graveyard of the Pacific' near the mouth of the Chehalis River was notoriously perilous. The Aigburth's near-wreck is a reminder of the raw, often unforgiving maritime conditions that defined daily life for early Aberdeen mariners.
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