Lost at the Cape
A young Norwegian boatbuilder and schooner owner vanishes in the heavy seas off Cape Flattery.
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 schooner Succeed arrived yesterday at Ballard from the Cape Flattery fishing grounds with the particulars of the drowning of Capt. Christopher Lawrence on Wednesday, June 14. A strong wind was blowing, and the captain went aloft to furl a sail. While so engaged, he lost his footing and fell into the water. Despite efforts to throw a line, the body was borne rapidly away and lost to sight in the waves. Christopher Lawrence was born in Tromso, Norway, twenty-eight years ago, and had lived in Seattle and Ballard for the past five years. He was a boatbuilder by trade and had built one or two fishing schooners. He was an industrious young man and possessed property in West Seattle.
“A strong wind was blowing, and the captain went aloft to furl a sail. While so engaged, he lost his footing and fell into the water.”
The death of independent immigrant laborers like Lawrence, who built their own vessels to fish the rugged Washington coast, defined the dangerous reality of Seattle’s maritime history. While modern fishing is heavily industrialized and safety-regulated, the peril of the Cape Flattery waters remains a recurring theme for local mariners.
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