The Sudden Loss of the Monte Cristo Purser
A young purser fell from the deck of a steamer and vanished into the river near the shingle mills.
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.
The purser on the steamer Monte Cristo, named Johnson, fell from the lower deck of that craft about 10 o'clock last night and was drowned. The steamer was coming up the river from the Sound, and at the time of the accident was just opposite Mudgett's shingle mill, which is two miles below this city. Johnson was a young man of the English type, and just how he happened to fall is not exactly known, as no one saw him at the time. It is supposed that he went forward to the bow after something and lost his footing. As soon as he was missed, search was made, which proved unsuccessful. Search is now being made for the body.
“Johnson was a young man of the English type, and just how he happened to fall is not exactly known.”
Maritime accidents on the Snohomish River were a routine danger during the peak of the local lumber and steamship boom. This highlights the vulnerability of workers on the industrial waterways that fueled Washington's early economy.
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