Dockside Misadventure for Ship Captain
Captain Elnathan Lewis suffers a brutal fall on the ice-slicked logs of Seattle’s waterfront.
Captain Elnathan Lewis, of the ship Carrollton, met with quite a severe and ugly though not necessarily fatal accident, on Wednesday afternoon last, while walking on the log boom at the old town. The Captain, it would appear, was endeavoring to make a landing from the steamer Zephyr, and, the logs being covered with ice, slipped, falling heavily between two logs, receiving severe contusions of the right shoulder and cracking two ribs. His companions, Captain Thompson of the Challenger, Captain Brown of the Oriental and Captain Luring of the Eldorado, immediately went to his assistance, and with a rope pulled him on the logs and with difficulty conveyed him to the shore. Captain Lewis in the meantime suffering greatly. By Mr. Atkinson's courtesy he was brought to Blackwell's hotel, where he is now being attended by Doctors Harvey and Beardsley.
“The logs being covered with ice, slipped, falling heavily between two logs, receiving severe contusions of the right shoulder and cracking two ribs.”
The precarious nature of 19th-century maritime commerce is reflected here, where the infrastructure of the docks—log booms and open water—created constant risks for workers and captains alike.
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