Teredos Ate the Piles—and 800 Sacks of Oats Went Into the Harbor
A warehouse on the Harrington & Smith dock collapsed at the Seattle waterfront, nearly trapping workers and dumping a cargo of oats into the silt.
The north side of the west end of the big grain warehouse on the Harrington & Smith dock caved in yesterday morning shortly before 11 o'clock, as a result of teredos eating away the piles, and 800 sacks of oats went into the harbor. Several men, including George Hridenstein, the salesman employed on the dock, had narrow escapes from meeting death. W. A. Harrington, the owner, was near by at the time and just a few moments before had been in that part of the warehouse which went down.
A half hour before the crash the oats had been sold by S. S. Berry & Co., who lease the dock from Mr. Harrington, but whether the sale will hold good is a question yet to be determined. All of the oats were recovered, but it is thought that very little will be realized on them after having remained several hours in the silt water.
The part of the wharf which went down was 250 feet and will cost about $[illegible] to repair.
“The north side of the west end of the big grain warehouse on the Harrington & Smith dock caved in ... and 800 sacks of oats went into the harbor.”
The Harrington & Smith collapse is a reminder that Seattle's waterfront economy has always depended on wooden pilings and tidewater engineering—and that marine organisms can undo both. Today's seawall and port repairs face different threats, but the basic question of who pays when infrastructure fails is unchanged.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.