Community

Gig Harbor Now and Then | Stray whaling on the peninsula

Posted on May 18th, 2026 By: Greg Spadoni

A-whaling they did go

Man’s relationship with whales has certainly changed over several generations. No matter the species, today they are mostly protected and revered. Not so in the early days of settlement on the Gig Harbor and Key peninsulas.

One of the earliest reports of man versus whale in local waters comes from The News Tribune of Tacoma. On Sept. 8, 1890, a humpback whale briefly disrupted life in Gig Harbor. The little bay was at the peak of its very first business boom, with its big, noisy, steam-powered sawmill leading the way.

The whale, with a complete lack of intent, stopped production of lumber while it was in town. It had inadvertently aroused the “common impulse” of blood lust in the sawmill crew. The newspaper reported the story the next day.

A WHALING BIG WHALE

The Cetacean Monster Takes a Romp in Gig Harbor

Last evening the big, hump-back whale that has been creating such a stir in the clear waters of Puget Sound found entrance at high tide into the bay at Gig Harbor through the narrow passage leading thereto. He disported himself at leisure without attracting attention until the tide had gone out and he then evidently discovered to his dismay that the exit was not “practicable” as playactors term it. To go over the bar was impossible and to pass through the narrow entrance at low tide was to expose himself to the ridicule and rifles of the derisive populace. Being of a somewhat ungovernable temperament, the cetacean lashed himself and the waters about him into a fury. This acted simply to draw the attention of the populace to his presence and as by common impulse all work ceased and everybody put to sea in the very hospitable endeavor to give Mr. Whale a warm reception. Guns and gunwales were prominent in the fray.

The buzz saw ceased its weary humdrum round, and the sawyers sought to set to sea and capture his monstrous nibs. There was a general rush for boats.

After about two hours’ chase, crowded with thrilling hairbreadth escapes, during which the whale made the waters white and the whalers made the air blue, the whale taking the mean advantage of rising tide, gave the pursuers the slip.

A good many shots are said to have taken effect in the cetacean’s cuticle, but the News can only vouch for the truth of the pursuit and escape. When the monster had once more left the little land-locked harbor to its shadows, its boom and its enraged but baffled sawyers, the saw once more resumed its weary, dreary whirr and again the echoes reverberated from shore to shore, and Gig Harbor was itself again—likewise the whale.

Justice of the peace/harpooneer

Not to be outdone by Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula had a somewhat more successful and far more exciting encounter with a whale in the summer of 1897. From the Tacoma Daily Ledger, Aug. 14:

LIVE WHALE HARNESSED

PEOPLE AT VAUGHN RIDE BEHIND A LEVIATHAN.

Harpoon Thrust Into the Big Fellow and Six Boats Make Fast to the Line—He Tows Them at the Rate of Six or Eight Miles an Hour for Several Hours and Then Escapes—Exciting Incidents of the Chase.

VAUGHN BAY, Aug 13.—(Special)—A whale thirty feet long appeared in Vaughn bay this morning. Steps were immediately taken to capture him. After two or three rifle bullets had been fired into his head, a small harpoon was successfully launched in the whale’s blubber. Five or six boats were quickly hitched to the harpoon line and the occupants of the boats took a free ride for about an hour, being towed round and round the bay. Attempts were made to strike the whale with another harpoon, but it was no easy task. About 3 o’clock, when the steamer Suzie delivered the mail, and had taken her departure, the whale made a bolt for the entrance of the harbor, seemingly following the track of the Suzie. He escaped into North bay, and when last seen three boats were still attached to the rope of the harpoon. This was about 5 p.m., and the whale was then heading towards Detroit.

In spite of the startling realism, this is not a photo of the 1897 whale in Vaughn Bay. This is a staged reenactment. The tipoff is that the photographer’s model in the picture is a killer whale, while it was a right (not Wright) whale that is believed to have participated in the actual event. Photo illustration by Greg Spadoni.

The first harpoon was thrown by Mr. Robert Irving, justice of the peace of Vaughn.

The whale finally broke away, near Allyn, and escaped.

His whaleship bled but little from the wound. The cetacean traveled with his tow at the rate of five or six miles an hour, and, apparently, without the slightest exhaustion. Harnessed to a string of six boats, filled with men, the monster cruised up and down the deep water channel at low tide. Captain William Bradford, of the steamer Suzie, pronounced the whale to be of the Wright or Greenland species.

Contrast that general reaction to the one in 1989, when a 30-foot gray whale stranded itself on the sand spit at Vaughn. Instead of frantically trying to kill it, witnesses were concerned with its wellbeing before it worked itself free and left the bay.

Apparently uncommon

It seems as though whales were rare sights in Puget Sound over a hundred years ago. In reaction to the multiple sightings of an estimated 60-foot whale near Tacoma in August 1901, the Tacoma Daily Ledger wrote, “The last whale to venture up Puget Sound visited this locality about four years ago and never got away again. He was harpooned … and towed to Quartermaster Harbor and exhibited [dead], much to the financial satisfaction of his captors.”

And then he was butchered for his oil.

From killing to capture

By the 1960s there was a push to capture, not kill, Puget Sound killer whales, with Gig Harbor fishing boats helping to trap some of them taken for display.

Still hunted, but for entertainment

Today, watching them is the reason for approaching whales in Puget Sound. But now it’s a crime to get within 200 yards of certain killer whales, and 1,000 yards of others.

Speaking of entertainment

Do you suppose the staff of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife would have a collective stroke if they saw a harpooned whale in Puget Sound towing a string of boats full of people?

I suspect they would.

Kudos to the anonymous News Tribune writer

Exceptionally well-written lines should be noted. In The News Tribune’s story concerning the whale in Gig Harbor, “the whale made the waters white and the whalers made the air blue,” is exceptional. It’s a great line. It says as much in half a sentence as a full paragraph could.

If only I could be that eloquent with so few words!

Blooper reel

After the picture of the realistic reenactment of the harpooning in Vaughn Bay had been taken, Tonya Strickland noticed the photographer’s whale model had continued to move, tipping over three of the boats it was towing. Also noticing that the whale appeared to be laughing at the upturning of events, she snapped this picture:

Just as the real whale did in 1897, the photographer’s model whale had the last laugh. Photo by Tonya Strickland.

New business

The previous two Gig Harbor Now and Then columns (on April 20 and May 4) concerned a 1989 traffic accident that ended up with a dump truck in the basement of the Harbor Inn on Harborview Drive in Gig Harbor. That particular Harbor Inn was established in 1966 in part of the existing Novak building. It was under different ownership at the time of the truck crash.

The Harbor Inn on Harborview Drive was not the first business in Gig Harbor to be named the Harbor Inn. That little fact ever-so-conveniently brings us to today’s local history question.

(For dramatic effect, the font size of the question will be increased by two points — at least in my copy; I don’t know the relative font sizes on the Gig Harbor Now website.)

Where is the location of Gig Harbor’s previous Harbor Inn?

A good — but not decisive — clue is that the building still exists today (although it’s been extensively remodeled, maybe more than once).

Another good clue is that the building is in excellent shape.

A third good clue is that the previous Harbor Inn operated in the 1920s.

A completely useless clue is that the current owners of the previous Harbor Inn building still owe me a plate of Penne Lucane from the IL Lucano Ristorante Italiano on Judson Street for the many hours I spent digging up the history of the building, several years ago, at their request.

The good news is that because the current owners never forked over the food, I never forked over the rich history of the building.

That means on June 1, the current owners might find out in this very column (if they read it; I don’t know if they do or not) the tantalizing fact that the building was the previous Harbor Inn.

But the rest of the building’s very interesting history will remain untold to them … until I get my Penne Lucane.

Greg Spadoni, May 18, 2026

Greg Spadoni of Olalla has had more access to local history than most life-long residents. During 25 years in road construction working for the Spadoni Brothers, his first cousins, twice removed, he traveled to every corner of the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas, taking note of many abandoned buildings, overgrown farms, and roads that no longer had a destination. Through his current association with the Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor as the unofficial Chief (and only) Assistant to Linda McCowen, the Museum’s primary photo archive volunteer, he regularly studies the area’s largest collection of visual history. Combined with the print history available at the museum and online, he has uncovered countless stories of long-forgotten local people and events.