The Unlucky Fate of the Steamer City of Ellensburg
Creditors protest a forced sale of a river steamer, claiming the vessel was sold for a pittance in a 'farce' of an auction.
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.
A dispute over the steamer City of Ellensburg reached Judge Hanford's court yesterday, as creditors attempted to set aside the sale of the vessel. The boat, which had been libeled by the Moran Bros. Company to satisfy a $1,300 claim, was sold at Virginia City for only $80. Crew members and other creditors argued that the steamer, worth significantly more, was sold in an inaccessible location where only a few bidders could attend on horseback. The marshal confirmed that the boat was in poor repair, noting that hull breaches had been temporarily patched with flour sacks and wooden boards. Judge Hanford ultimately refused to vacate the sale, stating it was notoriously difficult to find fair market value for libeled steamers on the Sound.
“The marshal had said that the holes in the steamer's hull had been stopped by using a sack of flour over each one and nailing boards over the flour to let it swell and hit the gap.”
The steamboat era was the lifeblood of early Washington commerce, connecting isolated river communities to the growing hubs of Seattle and Tacoma. This case highlights the precarious nature of maritime law and the desperate struggles of laborers trying to recover their wages from failed speculative ventures.
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