The Ghost of the Tug Mystic
After being run down by a larger ship and sitting on the bottom of Puget Sound for months, the tug Mystic becomes the subject of a legal tug-of-war.
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 libel was filed against the wreck of the tug Mystic Friday by Chris Paulson, Miles Bigelow, and J. C. Lykel, who raised her from the bottom of Puget Sound. They claimed to have a lien upon the wreck for $1,300 salvage, which lien the insurance company owning the wreck would not recognize. The tug was insured for $4,000 and that amount paid the owners, the wreck becoming the property of the insurance company. The wreck was yesterday sold to Capt. J. F. Burns by the company for $700. Capt. Burns has a guaranteed title from the insurance company, which will contest the libel. The tug now lies on the beach at Alki Point, where she was pulled out on July 12. The United States marshal has seized her and a keeper is now in charge. The Mystic was run down by the State of Washington on February 23 and went to join Davy Jones, remaining there nearly five months.
“The Mystic was run down by the State of Washington on February 23 and went to join Davy Jones, remaining there nearly five months.”
Alki Point is now one of Seattle's most recognizable park destinations, a far cry from the industrial graveyard for salvage it served as in 1894. This story highlights the brutal, physical reality of early maritime commerce, where a ship was worth more as a legal liability on the beach than as a working vessel.
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