Seattle Waits for Word of a Schooner—and Fears the Worst
The City of Topeka is due from Alaska with details of a wreck that may be the Seattle schooner George R. White, though the missing crew count does not match.
The steamship City of Topeka is expected to arrive from Alaska this morning, and she will in all probability bring down details of the loss of the schooner supposed to be the George R. White, of Seattle, on the upper Alaskan coast. There are a great many persons in the city interested in shipping matters who think that the schooner was not the George R. White. They base their belief on the fact that the Seattle schooner carried but fourteen men, while this schooner which was wrecked, according to the accounts which have thus far been received, had twenty-eight men in her. Hibbard & Norton, the owners of the George R. White, cling to the belief that she will turn up all right, and when the Topeka arrives today expect some definite news from their bark. Mr. Kendall, who is now in Alaska, may know. It may be, the water front men say, that the schooner which was lost was the other White, of San Francisco, which went North some months ago on a hunt and which carried about twenty-eight men.
“Hibbard & Norton, the owners of the George R. White, cling to the belief that she will turn up all right.”
Seattle’s economy was tied to Alaska waters, and a single missing vessel could mean dozens of local families waiting on the waterfront for news. The same mix of maritime risk, incomplete reports and community anxiety still attends fishing and shipping losses in the Pacific Northwest.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.