The Corpse in the Drifting Boat
A body found in an open boat in the Strait of Juan de Fuca leads authorities to a sealing schooner and a missing companion. Was it murder, or did both men drown?
Port Townsend, May 23. — Special. — A veil of mystery seems to hang over the incident of finding the corpse in an open boat in the Straits last week by the steamer Rosalie. Today it was ascertained that the boat belonged to the sealing schooner Elsie, and was seen to leave the harbor with two men aboard, one of whom was the one found dead by the Rosalie. Both men were strangers and were believed to have come from Nanaimo. Whether the missing man is responsible for the death of his companion or whether he, too, was drowned is a mystery the authorities are trying to unravel.
“Whether the missing man is responsible for the death of his companion or whether he, too, was drowned is a mystery the authorities are trying to unravel.”
The waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca have long been a corridor for sailors, smugglers, and sealers. This 1895 case—a corpse in a drifting boat, a missing man, and no answers—echoes the maritime mysteries that still occasionally surface in the Pacific Northwest. Then as now, the sea keeps its secrets.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.