A Steamboat Standoff on the Puget Sound
When a captain accused a passenger of skipping town on a fare, two witnesses stepped forward to detail a tense armed confrontation aboard the steamer 'Otter.'
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.
Having seen the statement made by Captain A. O. Benjamin of the steamer 'Otter' as to the conduct on said steamer, we feel it our duty as eyewitnesses to contradict the statement, except that Mr. James did afterwards pay him for the berth. Mr. James was with us when we boarded the 'Otter' at Coupeville, loaded with us at Port Townsend, and spent the night with us on the lower deck by the boiler, and did not occupy a berth. When Captain Benjamin came to us in the morning and asked for the fare for the bed, Mr. James spoke up and told him that he had been in the stateroom and looked at the bed, and found it damp and did not occupy it. Captain Benjamin acted more like a mad brute than a steamboat captain, and followed Mr. James for at least twenty feet, striking at him and calling him names not to be published, threatening to break his head. Mr. James backed off slowly, and several times called upon Benjamin to stop. When Mr. James had backed to where the freight was piled, and could go no further than that, he drew a revolver and told Captain Benjamin to stop. He made the demand to stop twice after he drew the revolver. Capt. Benjamin was not over three feet from James, or four feet at the most, when T. F. O'Leary gave James' arm a quick push, which caused James to discharge the revolver before it was his intention to do so. Capt. Benjamin then dropped his arms and acted as though he was shot, but soon after felt for his own revolver. James then drew again and leveled it at Captain Benjamin, when Benjamin failed to draw his weapon and showed no more fight. James then withdrew his weapon, telling Benjamin that if four bits was all he wanted, then it was his, and gave it to him. Mr. James was not excited or feared or mad, but was as cool and calm through the whole affair as he is in every day life. Mr. James acted the gentleman in every respect, and was not to blame. Furthermore, he did not go to Port Townsend or Portland, as Benjamin states, but went home with us from Coupeville to Whidbey Island, and has been seen by the writer in Seattle, where he is attending to his own business as a good citizen.
“Captain Benjamin acted more like a mad brute than a steamboat captain, and followed Mr. James for at least twenty feet, striking at him and calling him names not to be published, threatening to break his head.”
Public disputes over service and payment are as old as the territory itself. This 1876 incident echoes the modern reality of the 'customer is always right' paradox—and reminds us that in the 1870s, a disagreement over 50 cents (four bits) could escalate to a near-fatal shooting on the Puget Sound.
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