The Double-Cross on the Sloop Skagit
A crafty smuggler’s attempt to offload his legal liability onto his hired hand backfires after a loose-lipped celebration at a local saloon.
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 smuggling case before Judge Swan’s court has a new feature. Peter Sandstrom, having represented himself as a hired hand on board the sloop Skagit and not at all responsible for the doings of the master, Herman Garres, was released. Immediately upon leaving the court, he should have taken the steamer to Victoria, but he was too much elated at his success. After entering a saloon on Water street and taking a drink or two, he had to make confidants of the boys who stood around. It was not long before one of them informed the authorities. When he was about ready to leave town, he was rearrested. Upon hearing the testimony of those he had confided in, it was proven that Sandstrom is the owner of the sloop, and that he had purchased the forty pounds of opium at Victoria, paying $400 for it. After he was captured by the Customs officers in Tacoma, he had transferred the ownership of the sloop and goods to Herman Garres, who for a certain sum accepted all responsibility in the matter, assuming charge of the sloop. The Customs officials had up to the present supposed that Garres was really the master. Sandstrom is an old offender, and it is well that he has been caught, as, according to his own confession, he had lost $700 on this trip, but being so fortunate as to get from the clutches of the law, he was going back prepared to go into the business again.
“Immediately upon leaving the court, he should have taken the steamer to Victoria, but he was too much elated at his success.”
This 1885 account of maritime smuggling and judicial maneuvering in Port Townsend captures the era's volatile 'frontier' economy. Today's Port Townsend still grapples with the challenge of monitoring its complex coastline, though the illicit trade of the 19th century has traded opium for more modern variations of maritime gray-market activity.
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