The Steamer's Narrow Escape
A brush with disaster on the Snohomish River turns into a local scandal involving the engine room and a bottle of spirits.
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.
A local item reported that there was almost an accident aboard the steamer last week. The cause was reported to be whiskey in the engine-room.
The item added that passengers should be careful how they expose themselves to the elements.
“Passengers should be careful how they expose themselves to the elements.”
While river transit has faded, the age-old tension between labor safety and the influence of 'spirits' on the job remains a constant in industrial history. This snippet captures a brief, precarious moment in Snohomish's riverboat era, reminding us that life on the frontier was often only one bad decision away from catastrophe.
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