Rough Waters Halt Timber Production
High winds and choppy seas on the Puget Sound create a supply chain crisis for local mills.
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 Stetson & Post Mill Company shut its mill down yesterday for want of logs, according to the page. The Sound had been so rough for the past few days that the logs could not be towed in.
On the waterfront, nineteen ocean-sailing craft were reported lying in the strait yesterday waiting for tugs. The Levi G. Burgess was towed in by the S. L. Mastick; the Ivanhoe by the Wanderer; the Harry Morse by the Tacoma; and the C. F. Sargent by the Tyee. The report said each vessel would load coal for San Francisco or for a return trip.
The page also noted that the Ivanhoe’s trip up was a rather rough one. The mill shutdown and the waiting sailing craft were reported alongside other harbor movements, including the City of Topeka’s arrival from Alaska with a fair list of passengers and a very light cargo of freight.
“The Sound has been so rough the past few days that the logs could not be towed in.”
A century and a quarter later, the tension between Seattle’s maritime industry and the unpredictable weather of the Puget Sound remains a constant reality, even as the region’s economic engine has shifted from logs to tech.
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