Twelve Puget Sound Steamships Ground to a Halt as Engineers and Pilots Dig In
A bare-knuckle jurisdictional feud between the Marine Engineers' Association and the Brotherhood of Pilots leaves the Sound's biggest passenger boats idle and 300 men out of work.
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.
There was a general tie-up of Puget Sound steamers yesterday, occasioned by the fight between the Marine Engineers' Association and the Brotherhood of Pilots, and twelve of the largest boats, employing 300 men, are now at a standstill. The twelve boats tied up are the largest on the Sound, with few exceptions: the Henry Bailey, Wasco, Angeles, Buckeye, L. J. Perry, Flyer, City of Quincy, City of Seattle, Victorian, Idaho, George E. Starr and Greyhound. Six boats are running with non-union engineers and union pilots — namely the State of Washington, Sarah M. Renton, Sehome, Detroit, Delta and Glide. The City of Kingston is running with union men on both sides by agreement of the pilots, and the W. K. Merwin runs with her old crew, her pilot having ignored his union's orders. The Multnomah, Hermosa, Premier and Edith and several tugs are run by union engineers and non-union pilots. The mails are being carried on all routes by the Edith, Sehome and Delta.
The Puget Sound Harbor of Pilots met last evening and were addressed by Port Captain Hathbone, of the Union Pacific lines, who tried vainly to induce them to lift the boycott. They will try to tie up the Premier and Kingston.
The departure from Tacoma of the Sehome, which took place soon after 7 p.m., was the event of the day. Captain McAlpine was in command and he had a crew of engineers, none of whom were association men. Captain McAlpine celebrated his getting off safely by whistling as he passed along the dock. There were a lot of members of the Marine Engineers' Association on the wharf seeing the steamer off, but no demonstration was attempted. The crew had been brought up from Seattle by train for the most part, and some were secured in town.
Captain McAlpine said last evening that he thought his getting away would break the tie-up, as the contest must end soon anyway. The issue had been made by the captains and pilots upon Captain McAlpine's continuance, and, as the Sehome's starting assured this, the Flyer, the Idaho, the Victorian and the Seattle will be released. Captain Struve was quite certain that another day or two would see the fight ended. Captain Parker of the Greyhound was discharged for too ardently expressed sympathy with the pilots, so report says.
“There was a general tie-up of Puget Sound steamers yesterday... twelve of the largest boats, employing 300 men, are now at a standstill.”
A century before modern fights over gig work and crew classification, Puget Sound's steamboat unions were already paralyzed by a jurisdictional war between two crafts that both claimed the same deck. The tie-up showed how a dispute among a few hundred engineers and pilots could strand an entire region's transportation network. The same tension — who controls the work, and who gets to say who is qualified — still runs through every labor fight on the water.
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