Tragic Drowning at Lake Union
A young worker loses his life to a cramp while swimming in the lake.
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.
John Thorne, a young man working for contractor T. T. Auld, drowned in Lake Union while swimming late last night. About 7 o'clock in the evening, Thorne, in company with a fellow workman, went to the beach below the old ward house. They were soon joined by two boys who were in the neighborhood. All four struck out from the shore and had reached out about thirty yards when a friend looked around and saw Thorne struggling helplessly. He turned to assist him, but Thorne sank before he could be reached. Help was summoned and the body was recovered in about ten feet of water at 8:30. A carpenter was called in and tried all known means of resuscitation without success. The body was taken to the house of H. H. Viles. The unfortunate young man was about 19 years of age and possessed a magnificent physique, but it is believed that he was seized by a cramp and sank before he knew the danger he was in. He had been in Seattle only three months, coming here from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“He possessed a magnificent physique, but it is believed that he was seized by a cramp and sank before he knew the danger he was in.”
Lake Union remains a center for Seattle recreation, though it has transformed from a place of open access swimming beaches to a heavily managed urban waterfront. Drowning reports were common in the 19th-century press as the city grew rapidly and lacked modern municipal lifeguard services.
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