One Pump Between the Crew and the Bottom of the Sea
The bark Nona Jitum survived a two-day gale off the Columbia River only by keeping one pump running—then limped into Seattle with a ruined cargo and no insurance.
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 bark Nona Jitum, recently purchased in San Francisco by George J. Willey of this city, arrived in port Sunday night, thirteen days from San Francisco, in a very leaky condition and with her cargo of plaster, vinegar, salt and dried apples either floating about or water-soaked in her hold. She sprang leaks on the eighth day out during a violent blow, and from that time until her arrival in this city her pump was worked day and night. The crew of twelve men was about exhausted on her arrival and say they, too, would have been in the bottom of the sea had the pump broken down.
The bark enjoyed excellent weather for the first eight days out, but on the evening of January 1, in latitude 47, somewhere off the Columbia River, she encountered a violent storm, and soon after her seams opened and she began to fill. The two pumps were started, but one of them was broken and unfit for use, and the remaining one was worked to its utmost capacity. The gale lasted two days and two nights, and the only salvation of the crew and vessel lay in the remaining pump. Fortunately the bark has an excellent donkey engine, and by keeping it going incessantly she was able to weather the gale. The pump had to be kept going until the vessel was anchored at Willey's wharf, and it was then that the damage to the cargo was discovered.
On opening the hatch the cargo was found in confusion. Dried apples were floating around and on the bottom were barrels of plaster and vinegar and sacks of salt and flour, all more or less damaged. The crew immediately set to work and got out as much as possible. There was altogether about 100 tons on board, with no insurance.
The Nona Jitum is bark rigged, 1,149 tons displacement, and was built at Newburyport, Mass., in 1865, and is therefore 29 years old. She had been lying in the creek at Oakland, Cal., for the last year and a half and was in a very bad condition. She is commanded by Capt. Thompson and has a crew of twelve men. It is the intention of her owner to have her repaired and placed on the Port Blakeley Mill Company's lumber list.
“The crew of twelve men was about exhausted on her arrival and say they, too, would have been in the bottom of the sea had the pump broken down.”
This near-loss in a winter gale is a reminder that Seattle's late-nineteenth-century economy ran on risky, lightly insured maritime traffic. The bark was old, leaky and far from home, and the crew's survival depended on a single working pump—an industrial margin as thin as any today's supply-chain or labor disruption.
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