The Mystery of the Mast
Two Seattle brothers discover a man adrift off Blakely Rocks with a bullet in his forehead, sparking a murder investigation in a quiet maritime town.
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 12 o'clock yesterday, a man named M. R. Silber went to Clark Morrison's boat house and hired a sailboat for the purpose of going to Port Blakely. Silber was an expert boatman. At 9 o'clock last evening, a report reached Seattle that the boat had been capsized off Blakely Rocks and that Silber was drowned. Subsequent developments indicate murder. Alma and John Grinnell, of Seattle, found Silber hanging to the mast of the small boat about eighty rods from the Blakely rocks with a hole in his forehead. They brought the body to the rocks and summoned Justice of the Peace Wm. Bullam. At the inquest, the Grinnell brothers stated they had been on a holiday excursion from Seattle. They claimed that as they were preparing to return home, they saw the overturned sailboat with the man clinging to the mast. They put off to assist him, but he breathed his last just as they reached the rocks. The wound in the center of his forehead was made by a rifle ball, yet the flesh was not powder-burned. While the Grinnell brothers remain under the surveillance of a deputy sheriff, no one in Port Blakely currently suspects them of the crime, as their story remains consistent and the body was reportedly still warm when they arrived.
“The case bears the stamp of mystery on the face of it. That Mr. Silber was murdered is very apparent.”
This case highlights the enduring, often dark, isolation of the Puget Sound waters—a stark contrast to the bustling, monitored ferry routes of today. The 'Blakely Rocks' tragedy mirrors the timeless vulnerability of those who venture onto the Sound alone, then and now.
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