The Cowardice of the SS Clallam
A passenger's desperate leap into a crowded lifeboat leads to the death of twenty women and children.
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.
One man's selfishness cost a score of lives. As the Clallam was sinking, a third lifeboat was lowered, filled with women and children. Just as the boat was leaving the waterlogged steamship, a man leaped to the rail, shouting, 'By God, that boat don't leave without me,' and jumped into the craft. His weight crushed a woman's face and careened the boat, causing it to capsize under a wave. The boat sank before anyone could assist, and the man who caused it went down with it. Survivors refused to name the individual, but the act remains a dark legacy of the disaster.
“By God, that boat don't leave without me.”
This account highlights the visceral, chaotic reality of maritime evacuations before modern safety protocols. It serves as a stark reminder of how panic can amplify the human cost of industrial disasters.
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