Disaster in the City Waterway
A massive $179,000 dredger sinks overnight, blocking the main channel after a pipe failure.
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, just before midnight, with very little warning, the big dredger Pacific went to the bottom of the City channel, near the head of the bay. The accident was caused by the breaking of a two-foot suction pipe, and though the pumps were stopped, the back-flow soon filled the vessel and she slid to the bottom. Most of her crew of 28 men were asleep in their bunks, but all aroused in time to escape before the water reached them. When the dredger began to sink, it swung around, and now lies directly across the channel. Nothing has been decided yet in regard to raising the dredger. Apparently the hull is not damaged and will be raised without difficulty as soon as the task is undertaken. The Pacific is the property of the North American Dredging company and was built a year ago at a cost of $179,000.
“Most of her crew of 28 men were asleep in their bunks, but all aroused in time to escape before the water reached them.”
The City Waterway—now known as the Thea Foss Waterway—was the industrial heart of Tacoma's development, and the loss of such a massive piece of infrastructure would have been a significant event for the maritime and development community in 1904.
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