Terrified Passengers Flee as Steamship Hits Snag on Snohomish River
A routine trip turns into a frantic scene of life-preserver panic when the steamboat Fanny Lake hits an underwater obstacle just a mile from city docks.
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 Fanny Lake ran afoul of a snag about a mile below this city on her last trip; the passengers were frantic; one man with two life preservers about his person—one under each arm and the third about his neck—was trying to leap from the deck of the boat into the river, and helped by two or three others, was finally restrained from jumping. The passengers had been thrown around in perfect wild terror, it being a scene of panic such as is not often seen on a boat of this description.
“The passengers had been thrown around in perfect wild terror, it being a scene of panic such as is not often seen on a boat of this description.”
Steamboat travel was the lifeblood of the Snohomish Valley in the 1870s, but as this account shows, it was fraught with the danger of submerged hazards. Today, the Snohomish River remains a vital corridor, though the 'snags' are now more likely to be environmental restoration sites than wooden debris threatening regional transit.
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