The Rescued Souls of the Denmark
After the steamer Denmark founders at sea, survivors arrive in Washington, offering a glimpse of the harrowing endurance of 1889 sea travel.
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 11 o'clock, a special train on the Northern Pacific railroad took nearly 100 of the passengers toward their destination in the West and Northwest. The refugees, most of whom were destined for the East, left to shift for themselves. The majority of those who headed west are near Minnesota, Dakota, and other points in that section, while a few remain in Washington. They will be accompanied by agents of the company and will be provisioned at each stop.
The final leave-taking between Captain Morrill and the passengers of the Denmark was a touching one for all of those who grasped the hand of the master. Captain Morrill could not state the value of the cargo which had been thrown overboard. The entire cargo was valued at $40,000, but only a portion of it was thrown overboard. 'Although,' said the captain, 'had it been necessary, I would have thrown every pound of our cargo overboard. That which was jettisoned consisted principally of bales of rags, waste, and other light, but bulky, stuff stored beneath decks.'
“Had it been necessary, I would have thrown every pound of our cargo overboard.”
In 1889, steamship lines were the primary arteries of Seattle's commerce and passenger travel, and a single wreck could disrupt the lives of hundreds. Today, while passenger steamship travel has vanished, the anxiety surrounding the reliability and safety of our transit infrastructure—from ferry delays to rail bottlenecks—remains a central, recurring theme in Pacific Northwest life.
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