Drunken Longshoreman Saved from Seattle’s Docks
After stumbling off the Main Street wharf, a local laborer’s immense voice narrowly saves him from drowning in the harbor.
James Kelly, a longshoreman, was wandering around the water front in a beastly state of intoxication. While walking down the Main street wharf, he stepped off into the water where it was about fifteen feet deep. If it had not been for his voice, which was simply immense and which he used to the best advantage, he certainly would have been drowned. His cries for help brought quite a number of persons to his rescue, who encouraged him to hang on to a pile till Messrs. Peterson and Woodruff got a boat and went to his rescue. He was safely landed on the wharf, minus a hat and as wet as a drowned rat.
“His cries for help brought quite a number of persons to his rescue, who encouraged him to hang on to a pile till Messrs. Peterson and Woodruff got a boat and went to his rescue.”
This 1882 account of a maritime accident on the Main Street wharf captures the visceral, often dangerous life of Seattle's early waterfront workers. Today, the area near Main Street is far removed from the primitive docks of the 19th century, yet the tension between the city's booming industrial infrastructure and the individuals struggling to survive within it remains a constant in Seattle's history.
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