During 1900, Sarah A. Menagh pays $100 for first-class passage on the steamship Garonne from Seattle to Nome. Starting in the spring of 1900 there is a rush to the gold claims in Nome discovered the previous year. Ships to Nome become quite crowded. Sarah Menagh is shown her first-class accommodations -- a bathtub.
Because passage to Nome was so difficult to obtain she apparently accepted the “stateroom.” During passage, while asleep, a “sudden jar” threw Menagh out of her tub and through a glass partition. The cuts and other injuries she received confined her to bed for 25 days and resulted in the total loss of hair. On December 31, 1900, she sued Frank Waterhouse, Limited, the owners of the ship, for $1,896 for the injuries and other damages sustained.
