Steamer Cascade Lost Near Edmonds
A stern-wheeler meets a watery end after a labor dispute leaves it stranded on the beach during a windstorm.
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 Cascade is a wreck upon the rocky beach near Edmonds, having gone ashore during a high wind last Sunday. The boat had been retrieving a scow of hay when the engineer, David Keltic, refused to get up steam following a disagreement with Capt. McCoy. Later, the owner, Capt. E. A. Swift, attempted to move the vessel himself, but in the process, the Cascade got grounded broadside and stuck fast. The storm of Sunday night partially broke up the vessel, which had only recently been purchased and repaired at significant expense.
“He and Engineer David Keltic had a disagreement and the latter refused to get up steam, thereby preventing the Cascade from going after the scow.”
The loss of the Cascade serves as a reminder of how vital, yet precarious, small-scale maritime commerce was to the early development of towns like Edmonds. It also highlights how human interpersonal friction—in this case, an engineer and captain refusing to cooperate—could lead directly to the total loss of capital assets.
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