The Steamer That Vanished Into a Puget Sound Gale
A bitter cold snap and northeast gale kept boats at their wharves and raised fears that the Tolo had foundered between Eagle Harbor and Seattle.
The story, cleaned up
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The weather out on the Sound was even rougher yesterday than it was the day before, and but very few of the stern wheel boats ventured out at all. The waves could be seen leaping up ten feet high between here and Port Blakeley. But it was very calm in the harbor. Capt. Russell, of the little steamer Alta, came over from Eagle Harbor on the Sarah M. Renton and reported that the steamer Tolo, which is about the same size as the Alta, had left Eagle Harbor for Seattle about two hours before he left there, and as she did not reach here it was feared she had foundered. She may have put in somewhere, but where she could have gone was a conundrum.
The Multnomah did not come in from Olympia. She came as far as Tacoma and transferred her freight and passengers to the Flyer. The Greyhound remained at her wharf and did not venture out at all. The Umatilla came in from Vancouver to get ready for her trip to San Francisco, and she had a very rough time of it coming over. Her decks were all covered with ice where the seas had broken over her. Some of her crew said it was the worst trip they had ever made on the vessel.
Neither the steamer Henry Bailey nor Annie M. Pence showed up. Both have probably sought shelter at some way port coming in and will remain there until the weather improves. The State of Washington made her run to Everett all right Wednesday night, but she had to go clear through to Skagit Head in order to get into the Everett harbor.
The following weather dispatch was received from Signal Officer Pague, at Portland, last night:
Hoist cautionary northeast signal at 11 a.m.; storm center off Oregon coast, moving southeast.
The coldest weather that has been experienced here in over a year was that of the twenty-four hours preceding 5 o'clock last evening, the thermometer having reached 24 degrees, and the mean temperature for the whole time was 26.3. Last night it moderated somewhat and began snowing, but the fall was not very heavy.
“She may have put in somewhere, but where she could have gone was a conundrum.”
Puget Sound's ferries and freight boats still tie Seattle to island and peninsula communities, and a winter blow can still cancel runs and strand passengers. The 1893 scare over the Tolo shows how quickly a routine crossing became a search-and-rescue story in an era without radar or reliable marine forecasts.
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