Man Overboard: A Desperate Rescue Off the Port Townsend Wharf
When a crewman is swept off the steamer North Pacific just after she leaves the dock, two boats race the heavy swell to pull him from the water alive.
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.
"Man overboard!" was the cry that startled our citizens just after the steamer North Pacific left the wharf, bound for Victoria. The unfortunate man, whose name we subsequently learned was Joseph Watson, belonged to the crew of the steamer, and was engaged in putting the gangway rail in place, when the vessel, owing to the heavy swell, gave a sudden list to that side and he slipped off into the water, but with sufficient impetus to clear the wheel. The accident was witnessed from the wharf, and in less time than is consumed in writing this sketch, two boats were pulling for the rescue—one from the wharf and the other from the cutter. The man was battling bravely with the heavy seas that ever and anon swept over him and using his utmost endeavors to reach the shore, while the boats were being urged on by stalwart men with still more stalwart hearts. At length the first-mentioned boat, in which were Facten, Furlong, Bulitinech and G. Fowler, made up with him, and he was rescued. By this time the steamer's yawl-boat, which had been lowered, came up, and together they proceeded to the wharf, where Watson, after having partaken of some refreshment, was transferred to the latter boat and thence to the steamer, which had returned for the purpose. It was fortunate indeed that the accident happened when it did—within reach of the shore—as had it occurred at sea with such tempestuous weather, the chances for rescue would have been few; for—and it's the same old story—the steamer's boat with dilapidated wooden thole pins would most probably have given way ere the man could have been reached. Much credit is due those gentlemen who so promptly volunteered their services on behalf of the unfortunate mariner.
“Two boats were pulling for the rescue—one from the wharf and the other from the cutter.”
The dilapidated thole pins the writer frets over are an early entry in a long Puget Sound argument about whether working boats are fit for the weather they sail into. More than a century later, ferry safety, crew fatigue and the seaworthiness of the vessels that link these ports remain live questions on the same wharf.
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