Dredge Machinery Maims Engineer
A dangerous industrial accident aboard the dredger Pacific highlights the lethal risks faced by workers in Tacoma’s early 20th-century maritime industry.
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.
M. K. Anderson, chief engineer of the dredger Pacific, met with a terrible accident today. His left arm was crushed to a pulp in the cogs of a wheel at noon. He was in the act of oiling the machinery and had passed his arm through the steel stays in the friction gear, when one of the men accidentally set the gear in motion. Anderson's left arm was caught just above the wrist and before the machine was stopped the bones were crushed. His right arm was also cut and bruised, though it is thought the hand can be saved. Anderson was taken to the Fannie Paddock hospital, where his injuries were dressed. The left arm will have to be amputated. Anderson's home is in Seattle.
“His left arm was crushed to a pulp in the cogs of a wheel at noon.”
This accident underscores the precarious nature of industrial labor before the widespread adoption of modern OSHA-style safety protocols. It serves as a grim reminder of the physical cost of building the port infrastructure that defines Tacoma today.
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