Today is the 177th anniversary of the unhappy fate of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s 400-ton British barkentine Vancouver, when she met her fate on the sands in the middle of the Columbia River on May 8, 1848. 

The first officially appointed Lower Columbia River bar pilot (in 1847), Selah C. Reeves, took control of the vessel, which was heading for Fort Vancouver, at the mouth of the river. 

The ship’s master, Capt. Mouatt, had his men stand by in case there was trouble, but Pilot Reeves rather cavalierly assured the captain that he could handle the crossing with his “eyes closed.” Not exactly, as it turned out. 

The currents were stronger than usual, and the Vancouver drifted off course and ran hard aground. Adding insult to injury, they couldn’t work the ship loose by nightfall, when strong winds and huge breakers rolled in. 

The crew abandoned ship and made it to shore safely, but the ship was battered to bits and declared a total loss — much to the grief of those at Fort Vancouver, who were waiting for the vitally needed supplies the ship was carrying.  

Reeves was not only responsible for the wreck, plus the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, says he was fired that August “on the charge of taking and secreting goods from the wreck.” (Painting: William Howard Yorke)