Coroner Blames Corroded Boiler for the Explosion That Killed Two on the 'Owl'
A coroner's jury near Mukilteo rules that the Great Northern locomotive that blew apart was destroyed by broken stay bolts and corrosion — an industrial failure, not an accident of fate.
EVERETT, Feb. 13. — The coroner's jury, called to investigate the Great Northern boiler explosion on Wednesday morning near Mukilteo when the locomotive pulling the southbound 'Owl' blew up, killing two men, met at noon today and brought in a verdict declaring the accident was due to a defect in the boiler, the result of broken stay bolts and corrosion.
“A verdict declaring the accident was due to a defect in the boiler, the result of broken stay bolts and corrosion.”
Long before modern safety regulators, a local coroner's jury was the closest thing to an accident investigation board — and here it pinned two deaths on corroded bolts rather than operator error. The verdict reads like a proto-safety report, an early insistence that a railroad answer for the condition of its equipment.
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