A Ferry Before the Ferry: The Fight to Replace Open Boats on Admiralty Inlet
Whidbey Islanders were crossing to Port Townsend in open rowboats through tide rips and chopping seas. Local merchants and an island resident with $4,000 wanted piers, a steamer and a regular route.
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.
Whidbey Island is a desirable place, but there is great dissatisfaction with the present accommodation for passengers wishing to go to and from the island. The crossing, with the exception of a perfect calm, is dangerous, owing to the strong tide rips off Point Wilson, which, when met by a southwest or southerly wind, become a heavy, chopping sea. The ferry-boat is at present an open boat, having accommodation only for a few passengers and small packages.
There are many residents on Whidbey Island who, for business or pleasure, need to visit Port Townsend, and most of them, particularly ladies, will take the steamer at Coupeville for Seattle in rough weather, and from thence to Port Townsend by the Sound steamers rather than cross the straits in a small open boat.
The project of placing a steamer on this route has often been talked of, and we understand that at one time several hundred dollars were subscribed to erect a landing. The great difficulty of effecting a landing at all times is the principal reason why steamboat owners have been averse to placing a steamer on the route. But lately there seems to be an interest awakened among the island people, and one gentleman, an old and well-known resident of the island, stated a few days ago that he would put $4,000 in the enterprise.
What is really needed are two stone wharves or piers: one at the present landing, to be used in ordinary weather and during the prevalence of southerlies, and the other at some place inside Admiralty Head, to be used during the high winds from the westward. It wants a steamer as large as the Phantom for this route, and we understand that now is an excellent time to arrange with her owners to place her on the route. If the island people will unite and build a safe and suitable landing, we are satisfied that Port Townsend merchants will respond and aid in having a steamer to run between the two places that will be capable of running regularly.
The time is too far advanced to have any people satisfied with the slow and uncertain method of crossing Admiralty inlet in open rowboats or small steamers. We want, and can have, a new steamer if our neighbors on the island will unite with the merchants at Port Townsend to bring about so desirable a result, and we trust to see a suitable boat before long, as a ferry-boat to accommodate all.
“The time is too far advanced to have any people satisfied with the slow and uncertain method of crossing Admiralty inlet in open rowboats or small steamers.”
The arguments are familiar: a dangerous crossing, unreliable service, and a community divided over who should pay for a better landing. Today's ferry system still binds Port Townsend and Whidbey Island to the same tidewater geography, and still depends on the same uneasy bargain between public money and private demand.
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