A Rough Arrival from Yokohama
The steamer Crown of England arrives in Puget Sound after a harrowing 23-day voyage marked by mechanical failures and a violent 26-hour gale.
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 British steamer Crown of England, 23 days from Yokohama, arrived at Port Townsend laden with 280 tons of cargo. The vessel encountered a succession of accidents, including a broken propeller blade and engine room fires. Last Tuesday, the vessel was caught in a southeast gale that lasted 26 hours, leaving the ship unable to make progress and sweeping her decks. The vessel reached the west coast of Vancouver Island before finally finding Cape Flattery. While F. C. Davidge, agent for the Great Northern railway, noted that the vessel was not the class of ship intended for the route, she marks a new attempt at Oriental trade.
“The steamer was over twenty-five feet out of water and rolled in a perilous manner and was unable to cope with the heavy seas that swept her decks fore and aft.”
This story highlights the fragility of late 19th-century global trade routes. It serves as a reminder that Seattle's rise as a gateway to Asia was built upon individual ships weathering dangerous conditions.
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