A Great Pacific Sealing Race
Two schooners racing from Cape Flattery to the Bonin Islands set what might be the longest, closest race on record for the sealing fleet.
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 sealing schooners Allie L. Algar and Henry Dennis, owned by J. C. Nixon, have made a quick passage across the ocean, the Dennis winning. The vessels arrived at Port Lloyd, Bonin Islands, on February 8, with the Dennis dropping anchor just three hours after the Algar. Before the schooners left Seattle, some of the hunters put $200 into a pot for the one which made the shortest time from Cape Flattery to the Bonin Islands. The Algar left December 17 and the Dennis December 24. The former's sailing time was forty-seven days and the Dennis' time forty-three days. Mr. Nixon thinks it remarkable that two vessels should make a race of 3,000 miles and be so close together at the finish. He also thinks it is the longest race on record.
“Mr. Nixon thinks it remarkable that two vessels should make a race of 3,000 miles and be so close together at the finish.”
The maritime economy of the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest was defined by high-risk, high-reward ventures like sealing. While the industry has vanished, the spirit of competition in the Pacific continues to shape the region's trade identity.
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