The Strange Case of the Drifting Float
When a massive, expensive city-owned float vanished from its moorings, it sparked a mystery that ended in a quiet cove across the bay.
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.
The large float, belonging to the city, which was knocked from its moorings off the firm’s property on Monday last by barges and which drifted away, carrying with it twenty-one fathoms of chain, was picked up yesterday at Apple Tree Cove. It will be towed back to the harbor by the tug Pleasant, which was sent to the navy yard last evening. The float is sixty feet in size and was built in July 1888 by the city at a cost of $1,000. It was held in its place by what is known as a chain.
“The float is sixty feet in size, and was built in July 1888 by the city at a cost of $1,000. It was held in its place by what is known as a chain.”
This 1889 report of municipal infrastructure—a float built for the city's waterfront—drifting away into the Puget Sound is a reminder of Seattle’s long history of precarious harbor engineering. Today, Apple Tree Cove in Kingston remains a landmark, though the 'city-owned' assets lost to the tide have evolved from wooden floats to the massive ferry infrastructure that connects the city to the Kitsap Peninsula.
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