Critics Question Government’s Failure to Save Stranded Mariners
A local editor slams the inaction of the revenue cutter Wolcott after a sealing schooner wrecks near Vancouver Island.
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 sealing schooner Henry Dennis, of Seattle, has been reported wrecked off the northwest coast of Vancouver island, a desolate region seldom visited by vessels of any kind. The fact that the revenue cutter Wolcott and other government vessels on the Pacific coast do not make any effort to save human lives on such occasions is very unfavorably commented on by old mariners and shipping men generally. They say it is very strange that a vessel of her proportions and seaworthiness should lie around making pleasure trips up and down the Sound at enormous expense to the government, while almost within hailing distance, a vessel is reported wrecked and her crew of twenty-four human beings probably famishing on an island.
“It is very strange that a vessel... should lie around making pleasure trips... while almost within hailing distance, a vessel is reported wrecked.”
This reflects the 19th-century push for a more robust maritime search-and-rescue capacity. It echoes modern frustrations regarding bureaucratic inertia and the perceived misalignment of government resources in remote areas.
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