Daring Sea Rescue at Port Orchard
A squall nearly capsized a rowboat near Port Orchard; a Nipsic crew rescued Minnie Ketcheson and a captain's son.
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.
While Miss Minnie Ketcheson of this city and the 14-year-old son of Captain H. B. Joyce were out boating last Wednesday afternoon, a squall came up, and had it not been for the brave assistance of a naval crew from the warship Nipsic, the boat would have been capsized and the occupants drowned. The squall came up when the young couple were about a mile from shore, causing such high waves that the boat could not make the land. The wind and the tide were driving them further out, and the storm increased in fury. The Nipsic, seeing the boat in danger, sent a rowboat out, which reached the two just in time to save them from what would almost certainly have proven a watery grave.
“The squall came up when the young couple were about a mile from shore, causing such high waves that the boat could not make the land.”
Port Orchard remains a hub for naval activity, much as it was in 1892. This account captures the eternal danger of navigating the Puget Sound in small craft, a reality that remains unchanged for modern recreational boaters.
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