The Cricket Runs Aground
A steamer at Olympia drifts from its moorings and is submerged by the rising tide.
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 steamer Cricket was taken from the dock last night and anchored in the channel a short distance below Percival's wharf. As the tide went out, the steamer dragged her anchor and drifted out of the channel. When the tide went out, the Cricket lodged on the flat and listed. When the tide flooded, she was submerged and now lies almost entirely under water. Efforts will be made to right her with lighters tomorrow. It was a fortunate accident in one way, for had she listed toward the channel instead of away from it, she would have fallen some distance, as there is quite an embankment on the side of the channel where the steamer lodged.
“When the tide flooded, she was submerged and now lies almost entirely under water.”
Maritime accidents were a common hazard in the shallow waters of the South Sound, where changing tides often caught vessels off guard. Today, Olympia's waterfront is carefully managed for recreation and government use, but the legacy of the town as a bustling working port is still visible in its geography.
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