Ear: Grounded

From the Jan. 20, 1885 edition of The Daily Morning Astorian, here are the details of the unfortunate demise of the 154-ton British bark Dewa Gungadhur, under the command of Capt. Battersby, as told by the captain himself.

He was off the Columbia River Bar when he was driven back out to sea by a gale. So he set sail, aiming to pass by the Toke Point Lighthouse, in Washington Territory, which faced the north end of Shoalwater Bay, and was 15 miles away.

About 12 miles from Toke Point “there came a dead calm,” he said, “and shortly after a dense fog. About three o’clock, saw breakers to leeward.” He set anchor to wait it out.

When he set sail again and was abreast of Toke Point, “the fog cleared a little and showed the tops of the headlands; there were heavy breakers close to leeward, and the … ship drifted down to them.” Desperate, he tried to find anchorage.

Before he could, the sea became turbulent, the fog closed in and the ship ran hard aground. “I got out one boat and all hands left the ship; it kept three men busy bailing the boat out to keep her from sinking, the heavy sea filling it at every lurch.” They made it to shore, and all were saved in the desperate escape. The abandoned ship was a total loss.

On. Jan. 27, 1885, the newspaper couldn’t resist a snarky observation. “When the Dewa Gungadhur and the Abbey Cowper laid their bones by the Broughton and Lammerlaw, it was jestingly suggested that a subscription be taken up to get a fund to build a fence across Shoalwater Bay Bar, on which should be painted in plain black letters: ‘This is Shoalwater Bay! Look out! Keep away!’” (Painting: Andreas Achenbach)