A Miraculous Escape on Puget Sound: Two Steamers Collide Near Steilacoom
The steamer Northerner and a second vessel met suddenly on the water in October 1858, crushing the little steamer’s bow and nearly sending its captain into the Sound.
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.
At about half-past six o'clock on the 8th inst., a collision occurred on Puget Sound, a few miles from Steilacoom, between the steamer Northerner, Capt. W. L. Dall, and another steamer commanded by Capt. Pray—the former coming from and the latter going to Olympia. As near as we can learn, the particulars are these: After rounding Dickson's Point, the two steamers came in sight of each other twenty or twenty-five minutes before the collision. On the approach of the Northerner, Capt. Pray, who had the helm of the other vessel, prepared to give her a wide berth and pointed his vessel as far to the right as circumstances would admit. This did not avail him; in spite of his efforts to escape, the other steamer determined to run him down, and succeeded too well. The bow of Capt. Pray's vessel struck the Northerner just forward of the wheel, crushing and destroying the windows, bulwarks, etc., of the former; the wheel passed over her bow and scraped her foremast. The escape of the little steamer from submersion and wreck was indeed miraculous; so imminent did it seem that Capt. Pray on the instant partly divested himself of his clothing, in anticipation of a swim for his life. The damage sustained by the Northerner was not fully known when we went to press on the following morning. A soldier on board the Northerner had one of his limbs broken in two places; he was brought to Steilacoom under the care of Dr. Wins. We hear of no other injuries.
“The escape of the little steamer from submersion and wreck was indeed miraculous; so imminent did it seem that Capt. Pray on the instant partly divested himself of his clothing, in anticipation of a swim for his life.”
Puget Sound’s steamboat routes were the region’s highways in 1858, and collisions like this were a real hazard before modern navigation rules and radar. The story echoes today’s concerns about transportation safety and the narrow margins of travel on the water.
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