1892 — Apr 19-May 10, Victoria schooner Lottie capsizes, west of Tillamook Bay, OR–31-32

Blanchard note on dating of loss. The Seattle Post -Intelligencer notes the Lottie anchored off Victoria a day or two after clearing custom house on April 17. The wreck was noted as discovered in a telegram dated May 10. The loss would have had to occur sometime between those dates.

— 32 Gibbs, Jim. Disaster Log of Ships. 1971, p. 44.
–>31 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Coolies Her Cargo…Lottie Lost off…[OR].” 5-12-1892, p. 2.
–28 Chinese bound for San Francisco.
–>3 Crew (there are three named crewmembers; article does not note crew size).

Narrative Information

Gibbs: “Other tragic Oregon coast losses the schooner Lottie off Tillamook Bay in January 1892 with the loss of 32 lives…” (32 Gibbs, Jim. Disaster Log of Ships. 1971, p. 44.)

Newspaper

May 11: “Victoria, B.C., May 11. – (Special.) – Yesterday [May 10] a telegram from Astoria announced that the Victoria sealing schooner Lottie, ‘the baby of the fleet,’ had been picked up dismantled and clean swept, floating bottom up off Tillamook, south of the Columbia river. Search was immediately made at the custom-house for the names of the missing crew, when the strange circumstance presented itself that no one had been signed in the usual way for the cruise. It was explained that Captain Butler’s companions were his partners in the enterprise, and that articles therefore were not required. Reporters prosecuting inquiries as to the lost men, stumbled on the fact that while posing as a sealer, the Lottie’s real character was that of a Chinese ferry boat.

“Early in April she was chartered from her owner, Thomas Hatt, of Boundary bay, ostensibly for sealing. She made one short trip and ten returned to port and took on supplies scarcely sufficient for a sealing cruise, it is true, but still quite enough for the purpose. After clearing from the customhouse on April 17 in the usual way, she anchored in the lagoon, not far from the entrance to Victoria harbor. Here she lay for a day or two, apparently waiting for better weather, and here she took on board twenty-eight Victoria Chinamen who were anxious to be landed on California soil as near as possible to San Francisco.

“They were willing to take the risks of a sea voyage along the coast, and these risks were not inconsiderable when the trip was to be made in a 19-ton cockle shell like the Lottie, and also to pay a good round sum for the passage. Money will reach over many obstacles, and so it is not hard to understand why the white men were ready to brave the dangers of the cruise. They thought, too, that in event of bad weather they could run into some port for shelter, secure in their character as sealers. Evidently too great confidence was placed in the schooner’s seaworthiness, for the news from Astoria gives little hope that any one or anything was saved from her.

“The names of the white men who sailed from here cannot b accurately ascertained. Thomas Butler commanded, and his companions were known as ‘Fifteen-dollar Charlie’ Raffert and Gus Erickson, the latter a well-known steamboatmen, and formerly second mate of the City of Kingston. His friends were making anxious inquiries tonight, with a view to proving or disproving that he was one of the missing.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, WA. “Coolies Her Cargo. The Schooner Lottie Lost Off the Coast of Oregon. Not a Soul Was Saved.” 5-12-1892, p. 2.)

Sources

Gibbs, Jim. Disaster Log of Ships: A Pictorial account of shipwrecks, California to Alaska. NY: Bonanza Books, 1971.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, WA. “Coolies Her Cargo. The Schooner Lottie Lost Off the Coast of Oregon. Not a Soul Was Saved.” 5-12-1892, p. 2. Accessed 2-16-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/seattle-post-intelligencer-may-12-1892-p-2/