Midnight Hijack on the Coal Wharf
A steamship steward is drugged and robbed in the dark, highlighting the dangers lurking on the Seattle waterfront.
On Tuesday, shortly after midnight, Mr. J. Martin, steward of the steamship Mississippi, was walking down the coal wharf toward his ship when he was confronted by two men—one tall with a full beard, the other shorter—who emerged from between a string of rail cars. They seized Martin, pressed a handkerchief saturated with a mysterious substance over his face, and robbed him of three half-dollar pieces. Martin, having only 75 cents on his person, was released and the thieves fled up the wharf. Martin did not report the incident to his officers until the following morning. Chief Woolery organized a search, but the delay in reporting likely allowed the perpetrators to escape. Capt. Holmes of the Mississippi noted that he had passed the same spot half an hour earlier and heard men lurking on the opposite side of the train, suggesting he may have been the original intended target.
“Had Mr. Martin followed the thieves up the street and informed the police and the people at once, the thieves would undoubtedly have been apprehended and now either be under arrest or hanging on the scaffold.”
This incident echoes the long-standing tension between Seattle’s maritime industry and the criminal elements that once haunted its dark, industrial waterfronts. While the coal wharves have been replaced by modern infrastructure, the vulnerability of those working late-night shifts remains a persistent concern in the city's ongoing discourse on public safety.
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