The Boiler Bursts at Five Twenty
A mill boiler at Port Madison exploded before the morning shift was fully at work, killing five men and scalding a sixth. A witness wrote that ten minutes later would have killed more.
The following particulars of a fatal accident at Port Madison, involving the death of five men, we copy from the Port Townsend Northern. Capt. J. B. Fleming, of the U.S. steamer Eliza Anderson, has kindly furnished the following account of a terrible accident at Port Madison:
The boilers of Meigs' mill at Port Madison exploded at 5:20 this (Monday) A.M., making a complete wreck of the machinery and mill, instantly killing five persons and severely injuring one other. The accident occurred at an hour when there were but few persons employed; had it happened an hour later, no doubt twenty others would have been killed. Cause of explosion, scarcity of water in the boiler. There were six cylinder boilers, two of which were completely ruined.
Killed: William Ranch, engineer, Ireland. Thomas Bean, carpenter, Seattle. Capt. John Morton, late of schr. ... W. ... George Spree, ... Oregon.
Wounded—Frederick Baker, lawyer.
We received by mail the following letter from Hon. John Webster, who was there at the moment, and desires to elicit all particulars. It says:
Port Madison, March 18th, 1861.
John P. Dane—Dear Sir: A most terrible accident has just occurred at this place. It is supposed, at twenty minutes past five, one of the boilers in Dr. G. A. Meigs' mill burst with a terrific explosion, instantly killing five men and very severely injuring one other. [Here follow the names as above.—Ed.] Frederick Baker is very dangerously injured. He is very badly scalded, has one leg broken, and several injuries about the head. The bell rang at five o'clock, to call the men to breakfast, and they had just commenced work in the mill. If the explosion had been ten minutes later, there probably would have been five or six more killed. The immediate cause of the explosion is unknown. The damage to the mill not very serious. The engine, machinery, etc., are not much disturbed. One boiler is burst, and the others displaced. The mill will be put in running condition again immediately.
Yours, John Webster.
“If the explosion had been ten minutes later, there probably would have been five or six more killed.”
Port Madison's mill is long gone, but the blast belongs to the lethal prehistory of Puget Sound's lumber economy: dangerous boilers, crowded shifts, and rapid rebuilds that treated five deaths as a bad morning's interruption. The same questions about who bears workplace risk—and how quickly production resumes—still shape labor fights today.
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