The Night the Hue Jacket Struck the Tacoma
A federal admiralty complaint lays out a Strait of Juan de Fuca collision, a missing lookout, and a $15,000 claim against a square-rigged ship.
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.
Public notice is hereby given that a libel has been filed in the District Court of the Third Judicial District of Washington Territory, holding terms at Seattle, in admiralty, by the Tacoma Mill Company against the ship Hue Jacket, her tackle, apparel and furniture, for damages for collision. The libel alleges that on June 11, 1885, the steam tug Tacoma was towing the American bark Lotus, lumber laden and bound from Port Townsend for San Francisco, down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. About four miles north of Tatoosh Light, steering W. by S. at about two miles an hour, the tug sighted the red light of the ship Hue Jacket, inbound from San Francisco to Seattle, one or two miles distant. Soon the ship's red light disappeared, her green light came into view, and then she showed both lights, approaching and running S.S.E. before the wind under full canvas at about eight knots. The tug put her helm hard a-port to avoid collision. The libel charges that the ship had no lookout and was negligently navigated; that her helm was put hard a-starboard instead of keeping her course or porting; that collision became unavoidable, and the ship struck the tug on the port side about amidships, doing great damage to hull and machinery, with delay and loss of business. The libellant claims $15,000 damages and costs.
“The ship had no lookout and the officers and seamen having charge of said ship unskillfully, carelessly and negligently navigated said ship.”
The collision was a routine hazard of Puget Sound's busy maritime economy, but the legal notice turns it into a story of blame, damage and lost business. Today's cargo and ferry traffic in the Strait of Juan de Fuca still depends on the same rules of the road—lookouts, lights and right-of-way—and the same disputes over who pays when they fail.
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