The Dangerous Cargo on the Eliza Anderson
A wharfinger and a ship captain face a Grand Jury indictment after shipping fifty pounds of giant powder aboard a passenger steamer.
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.
In the case of the United States vs. George H. Foster, wharfinger at Yesler's wharf, and Captain Thomas Wright of the Eliza Anderson, the Grand Jury has returned true bills for transporting dangerous explosives on a passenger vessel. Both defendants were arrested and entered into bonds to appear for trial. When questioned, Mr. Foster explained: 'Some time since I received a letter from Mr. Blanchard, a friend of mine, who interested me in taking him fifty pounds of giant powder. I went up to a hardware store, bought the stuff requested, and shipped it on the Eliza Anderson for his use, little thinking I was doing anything further than a favor for a friend. I certainly had no intention of violating any law, but if I have done so it was certainly unintentional, and I will pay whatever fine the court sees fit to inflict.'
“I certainly had no intention of violating any law, but if I have done so it was certainly unintentional, and I will pay whatever fine the court sees fit to inflict.”
This incident echoes today's ongoing tensions between maritime logistics and public safety, where the transportation of hazardous materials in an increasingly dense urban waterfront—much like 1880s Yesler's Wharf—remains a major point of civic liability and regulatory scrutiny.
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