The Waterfront Standoff
Striking union sailors are outmaneuvered when non-union crews are covertly transported to a ship at Port Blakeley.
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.
There was considerable excitement on the waterfront yesterday, principally among the union sailors. They were aware that the four-masted schooner Robert Searles had completed a lumber cargo at Port Blakeley for Australia and intended to carry a non-union crew. Expecting the crew to be sent from Seattle, union sailors congregated at the wharf, watching passengers of the steamer Michigan. When union men confronted one passenger, he claimed he was looking for work, but was distracted and sent away. However, the union sailors were fooled; the non-union crew was assembled elsewhere on the waterfront and taken to Port Blakeley in a boat chartered specifically for the purpose. The Robert Searles thus successfully secured a crew furnished by Agent Hawkins of the Shipowners' Association.
“Again the Michigan was watched in the afternoon, but this time the union sailors were fooled, for the non-union crew was got together on another part of the water front and taken to Blakeley in a boat chartered for the purpose.”
This incident captures a moment of intense labor unrest in Puget Sound's maritime industry. The tactical cat-and-mouse game between union picketers and shipping agents reflects the fierce competition for control over the region's burgeoning industrial workforce.
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