The Fiery End of the City of Stanwood
A stern-wheel steamer, once a vital link for the Skagit River trade, is reduced to a smoking wreck after a fire breaks out at Port Susan.
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.
Another steamer was added to the long list of boats burned on the Sound this year. The City of Stanwood was burned to the water's edge at Port Susan yesterday afternoon. The boat had been plying between Seattle and points on the Skagit River and stopped at Port Susan to take on wood. While lying at the wood raft, fire broke out and the boat was soon wrapped in flames. The crew and five passengers had barely time to escape, with some forced to leave all their personal belongings behind. Owned by the Stanwood Navigation Company, the vessel was built in 1891 and was 101 feet long. The boat did not sink, but the damage is total.
“The crew and passengers, the latter being five in number, had barely time to escape, and some of them were compelled to go without their baggage.”
Steamer accidents and fires were an almost weekly occurrence in the 1890s, defining the peril of the Puget Sound maritime economy. Today, while passenger safety has improved, the loss of these historic vessels remains a chapter in the vanishing maritime industrial heritage of the Skagit Valley.
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