1881 – Jan 3, Bark Lupata, stormy night, grounds / breaks on Tillamook reef, OR –16-18

— ~18 Lloyd. “This Nest of Dangers: ‘The Fated Lupata’…broke upon Tillamook rocks.” 12-19-2018.
— 16 Marshall, Don. Oregon Shipwrecks. Portland, OR: Binford & Mort Pubs., 1984, p. 131.

Narrative Information

Lloyd: “A mile offshore of Tillamook Head in the very northwest corner of Oregon, between Seaside and Cannon Beach, squats the 100-foot-high basalt monolith called Tillamook Rock. Back in the days of sailing ships, when navigation instruments were crude and could easily be misread, when inbound ships were much smaller than today’s industrial vessels and traveled closer to shore, the rock was a navigation hazard, a cement barrier in the middle of a nautical highway….

“By May 31, 1880, the rock had been lowered by about 30 feet, and the crew had removed 4,630 cubic yards of solid rock. They now had a flat surface on which to anchor a lighthouse, which would hold a first order Fresnel light. It would take another nine months or so to build the structure.

“Just days before that light was lit, during a winter storm, a ship on the way to its doom passed alarmingly close to the lighthouse. “The Fated Lupata,” wrote The Morning Astorian on Jan. 9, 1881, “… came in there last Monday evening about 7 o’clock in a most terrific storm, so dark and thick that her lights only could be seen from the [Tillamook] Rock. The weather was so fearful that the sea broke over the rock 90 feet in height….

“‘When first seen from the Rock the Lupata was coming direct to the Rock apparently from shore. She then changed her course, bearing toward Tillamook Head, and passed on northward, between Tillamook Rock and the main land, till she struck where she now lies.’….

“‘…. At low tide last Sunday Mr. Cloutrie, the mail carrier, passed under the cliff of Tillamook Head and there found the ghastly remains of 12 men. Five in one heap, and seven in another. ‘But alas, the place where they came in was the most forbidding spot along the whole coast, an almost perpendicular cliff of rock, against which possibly, if living to reach it, they were dashed to death or perished in their futile attempts to get away. … The bodies will be given Christian burial, and a sharp look out will be kept for the others.’ (The Morning Astorian, Jan. 11, 1881.)….

“‘Ten of the unfortunate men off the Lupata were buried by a party from the Sea-side on Wednesday….It was a work of mercy performed under the most trying circumstances. Two of the bodies were not recovered…. (The Morning Astorian, Jan. 15, 1881.)….

“‘Six additional bodies were washed ashore last Sabbath near the wrecked ship Lupata. Their features were so mutilated by beating against the rocks that descriptions are impossible. Seventeen bodies have now been recovered. (Albany Democrat, Jan. 28, 1881.)….

“‘Mr. Grimes, mail carrier from Sea-side, informs us that another body was found on Clatsop beach by Mrs. Shepherd, who procured the necessary assistance and had it buried. Probably this was one of the Lupata unfortunates which had washed ashore among the rocks with others and been left there unburied and perhaps floated off again….’” (The Morning Astorian, Feb. 10, 1881.)” ….

Sources

Lloyd, Nancy. “This Nest of Dangers: ‘The Fated Lupata’ – As lighthouse came into being, British ship broke upon Tillamook rocks.” Chinook Observer, Long Beach, WA. 12-19-2018. Accessed 4-16-2020 at: https://www.chinookobserver.com/life/history/this-nest-of-dangers-the-fated-lupata-as-lighthouse-came/article_a53c7fb2-03c6-11e9-a2e2-a329d1edc0a4.html

Marshall, Don. Oregon Shipwrecks. Portland, OR: Binford & Mort Publishing, 1984.