Odd, Old News: Lost At Sea — The 1867 Wreck Of The Kaluna

Nuggets of old news are served up by David Heller, one of our local historians.

In early December of 1867, a little more than two months after the wreck of the schooner Kubrick near Big Flat on the Lost Coast, fierce weather and a turbulent ocean caused the capsizing of the brig Kaluna. There was no ship to shore communication in those days, so the ship’s whereabouts were unknown. Barely spared from being “victims of Neptune’s maw”, the ship’s crew floated adrift out on the ocean for days with faint hope of rescue.

On December 7th, the Kaluna had taken on a load of tongue and groove redwood lumber at Ft. Bragg and sailed out to sea. The next day, the Kaluna was buffeted by gale winds and heavy seas. The ship started to list and capsize after its deck cargo was swept into the ocean, the high seas made it necessary to lash the crew down to the vessel. During a lull in the weather, the crew sawed off the main mast to right the ship, but they continued to drift helplessly. The ship’s cook, Tom Mooney, was washed overboard and drowned. After four days, hunger dictated a difficult decision, one that a dog aboard the wreck didn’t approve of.

Shortly thereafter, a ship appeared on the horizon stirring the crew’s hope of rescue. Fortunately, as the barque Kutusoff came closer, it did see the drifting shipwreck. A much relieved Captain Whitney, mate, and four crew members were transferred to the Kutusoff, taken to San Francisco and arrived on the 16th.

With the Kaluna’s Captain onboard, the US Wayanda sailed north out of San Francisco on the 18th, on what would be a fruitless search from Pt. Arena to Shelter Cove looking for the shipwreck. Fierce squalls and high seas damaged the Wayanda’s bulkheads, stove in gun ports, one lifeboat was lost. Battered and having failed to find the Kaluna, they returned to port.

By the 21st of December, most of the wreck of the Kaluna had washed up on shore at the base of a tall cliff 2-3 miles north of Shelter Cove, the cliff henceforth became known as Kaluna Cliff. As we have seen in the case of the wreck of the Active, coastal shipwrecks often involved a transfer of wealth to eager locals who would salvage washed up cargo.

The two recent shipwrecks had left a lot of debris scattered along the coastline. To the north of the wreck of the Shubrick at Spanish Flat, the upper deck of a larger vessel had come ashore, a broken ship’s boat was found at Singley Creek, and redwood lumber was strewn along the beaches south of Cape Mendocino.

John Ray, one of the earliest Euro-American Shelter Cove residents, was able to save some of the Kaluna’s load of lumber, which was said to have been used later in an early Shelter Cove wharf.

This week, Odd Old News will review the story of the Wreck of the Kaluna through the somewhat discrepant news reports of the time.

DISASTER OF THE SCHOONER “KALUNA.”
Daily Alta California
December 17, 1867

The Vessel Foundered and One Man Washed Overboard and Drowned Four Days Without Food or Water.

Capt. Whitney, of the Kaluna, who arrived on the barque Kutusoff yesterday, makes the following report:
Sailed from Noyo River December 7th, with the wind light from southeast; December 8th, at 6 A.M., the wind had increased to a gale, the vessel at the time being hove under close-reefed jib, was struck by a very heavy sea, which threw the vessel on her beam end, I was compelled to cut the masts away in order to right her again.

December 8th. Thomas Moon, cook, was washed overboard and drowned.

December 12th, long. 134 18′ W., lat. 39° 14′ N., the barque Kutusoff, from Bellingham Bay for this port, hove in sight, and on seeing us, Capt. Robinson lowered a boat and took myself and crew on board his vessel, where we were treated with great kindness, the Captain doing everything in his power to make us comfortable. At the time of our being taken from the wreck we were in a very exhausted condition, not having had any food or water for four days.

The same day, another newspaper placed the rescue ten degrees of longitude closer to shore, approximately six miles west of the town of Mendocino(Sacramento Daily Union, 12/17/1867). Then the full story came to light:

Marysville Daily Appeal
December 22, 1867
SHIPWRECK AND LOSS OF LIFE
—The schooner Kaluna, on her way from the Noyo river, Mendocino county, to San Francisco with a cargo of lumber, was struck December 8th with heavy seas, her deck cargo washed overboard and herself capsized. The cook, Thomas Mooney, who leaves a wife and five children in San Francisco, died of fright or from some cause unknown, and the balance of her crew clung to the wreck four days without food when they were picked up by the bark Kutusoff, which brought them to San Francisco. The sufferings and anxiety of the crew of the Kaluna is depicted and described by the Times as follows:

The gale continued unabated during the whole of Sunday and a part of the night, the shivering crew being all this time lashed to different parts of the vessel, and the seas breaking over them continually. Soon after midnight, however, the gale commenced to lull, and about eleven o’clock on Monday forenoon the crew were enabled to unlash themselves, and get about the after part of the deck, when an old saw was fished up out of the cabin, with which the foremast was cut away, and the vessel came nearly upright. Although the wind had gone down, there was still a heavy swell running. And this state of things continued until Wednesday morning, the unfortunate mariners being all this time without food or water. They did not suffer so from thirst, as considerable rain had fallen, but by this time they began to be affected by the gnawings of hunger. A cat and dog had managed to stick to the wreck, and it was now proposed to sacrifice the cat. Poor pussy was accordingly slaughtered, dressed and cut up, and after some reluctance and wry faces, was partaken of (raw, of course) by all hands. The Captain refused to touch the cat meat for some time, but was finally brought to it by extreme hunger. The dog, however, although he devoured an old razor case, could not be induced to touch the flesh of his companion, surmising, perhaps, (if dogs can surmise) that he would be the next victim. But relief was near at hand, and no more sacrifices were needed.

About eleven o’clock on Wednesday forenoon, a sail hove insight—a bark, standing on the wind, on the inshore tack and heading directly for the wreck, the wind being light, but still from the southeast. The vessel was about ten miles distant when first discovered—too far for those on board to see the wreck, how the hearts of those exhausted, storm-beaten sailors leaped when they saw her? and what an agony of suspense did they endure until they were perceived, lest she should change her course and leave them to their fate. But around she came, slowly but surely, and in about one hour—the longest and most anxious hour they had ever experienced—they were seen from the approaching vessel, and about two P. M., she rounded too under the lee of the dismantled schooner, lowered a boat and took the unfortunate but thankful crew on board.

A month after the wreck, a letter was shared that had been written from “Shubrickville” on December 21st reporting that the Kaluna had come ashore north of Shelter Cove and John Ray at work salvaging the lumber. (The newspaper erred in placing this in Mendocino county):

FROM THE WRECKS OF THE “SHUBRICK” AND “KALUNA.”
The Mendocino Coast Strewn with Wrecks.
Daily Alta California
January 7, 1868

Our readers will remember the circumstances of the capsizing of the brig Kaluna, of this port, off Humboldt Bay, and the rescue of her crew (with the exception of the cook, who was washed off and drowned) by a vessel which took them off, after they had been clinging to the wreck for nearly four days. Subsequently we had the announcement by telegraph that the wreck had drifted ashore. A letter from Shubrickville, Mendocino County, dated December 21st, and received yesterday, contains the following particulars, written by a gentleman who was not aware of the rescue of the crew of the Kaluna:

“The brig Kaluna, loaded with lumber, came ashore eight miles below this place, and two miles above shelter cove. She was dismasted and her cabin was gone. Her rudder is also gone. She is now lying high and dry on the beach. There are parts of other wrecks also strewn along the beach. There was not a soul on board the Kaluna when she came ashore. The butts have all started from her stern post, one plank is started on her port side, and her forefoot is gone. A few tools and other trifling articles were found in a tent nailed to her stern. Mr. John Ray, who is getting the lumber out of her, showed me a lock of long hair, apparently that of a lady, which he picked up from a piece of her cabin. [This may have been a piece of the chain of some other vessel: there were no women on board the Kaluna. — Local Alta].

The anchor and chains are safe on shore, and the vessel can be got off, providing there are people here to work at her before another storm comes on. She would require to be hauled up and repaired, and ways put under her to launch her. Her foremast, which was found on deck, had all the rigging and sails attached, it had been sawed half off two feet above the deck.

The little Shubrick has been got up all right, and will be ready for launching again by the middle of January”.

And that is the story of the wreck of the Kaluna that gave Shelter Cove’s Kaluna Cliff its name.

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• A Carriage Ride Down the Coast in 1892
• Lively Times At Klondike
• Drinking And Gambling Didn’t Mix
• The Round Valley Coal Fields
• ‘The Gypsies Are Coming!’
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• Anti-Gypsyism in 1897 Humboldt County