The River Pirates of Pine Street
Two young men were caught in the act of trying to break into a safe stolen from the wreck of a burned steamboat on the Seattle waterfront.
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.
Barney Wilson and C. A. Boyer, two boys, neither of whom is over 20 years of age, were arrested by Chief Butterfield yesterday for stealing a safe from the wreck of the burned steamer Dispatch. The wreck is beached at Point Elliott and is in charge of two of the crew. Yesterday morning they reported to Mate Flaisted that during the night the small iron safe belonging to the boat had been carried away by river pirates. About noon yesterday young Wilson and Boyer were seen sailing away from the deck at the foot of Pine Street with a small safe in their boat. Detective Merritt was notified and he chased the boys across the harbor to West Seattle. When he reached them he found them engaged in burying the safe in the sand, having first attempted to open it by knocking off the combination with a sledge or crowbar. They were both armed with new revolvers and were supplied with provisions. The detective brought them back to Seattle, where they were taken in charge by the police. They will be charged with petty larceny today.
“Yesterday morning they reported to Mate Flaisted that during the night the small iron safe belonging to the boat had been carried away by river pirates.”
The theft of property from wrecked vessels was a common nuisance in the 19th-century maritime economy of Seattle. Today, while the 'river pirates' are gone, the waterfront at Pine Street has transformed from a site of industrial wreckage to a high-end tourism and cruise terminal district, showing the city's shift from rough harbor trade to modern urban development.
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