The Maritime Runaways of Puget Sound
A survey of seafaring history where captains would 'elope' with their own ships to evade the law, including recent incidents in Tacoma.
Running away with a vessel is not such an uncommon act as some people think. A few years ago, a law officer left in charge of the schooner Superior at San Francisco quit the vessel for a few minutes; Captain Johnson immediately got up sail and put out for Victoria without a register. More recently, the latest case of this sort is that of Captain Adams and the ship Richard III from Tacoma last week, aided by the tug Tacoma. This case was something like that of the Superior, the law officer in charge having temporarily left the vessel, the captain taking advantage of the opportunity to go to sea.
“The Captain boldly assumed the responsibility of firing up and steaming off, taking the officer with him.”
These maritime 'elopements' were a peculiar form of 19th-century civil disobedience and rebellion against customs bureaucracy. It reflects a time when the vastness of the Sound made a ship's departure a final, decisive act of independence from legal authority.
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