Family Missing After Sloop Disappears in Puget Sound
A Mount Vernon father ignored warnings to stay off the rough waters of the Sound with his wife and children; now only debris remains.
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.
Word has just been received that George Tyler, wife and two children, of Mount Vernon, who left the mouth of the Skagit river for Orcas island in a sloop, are believed to have perished. Tyler had been trading his land in Skagit county for the sloop Bertha, and a week ago Thursday, with his wife and children, he started for Orcas island. A local man, Bradovich, tried to dissuade Tyler from starting, for the Sound was very rough and one man could not handle the sloop. He went, however, and has not been seen since. Bradovich started out yesterday and went to Orcas island and found that Tyler had not reached there. On his way back he fell in with some Indians, who had found a small boat belonging to the Bertha washed up on the beach. Some very rough gales had been blowing down the straits, and Bradovich is sure Tyler and his family must have perished.
“Bradovich tried to dissuade Tyler from starting, for the Sound was very rough and one man could not handle the sloop.”
The transition from land ownership to precarious maritime life in the San Juan Islands was a common trajectory in 1890s Washington. The treacherous nature of the Salish Sea in winter remains a reality for boaters today, reflecting the enduring hazards of navigating the Sound.
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