Captain Thomas Coupe was a ship's captain and early settler of Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island is one of nine islands located in Island County, Washington, in the United States. Whidbey is located about north of Seattle, and lies between the Olympic Peninsula and the I-5 corridor of western Washington...

.

Thomas Coupe was born in New Brunswick, Canada

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

  and began going to sea at the age of 12. Coupe sailed the North American Atlantic Coast until the early 1850's. Coupe sailed to the Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

 area in 1852 on the sailing vessel Success, a ship in which he was half owner.

Under the Donation Land Claim Act

Donation Land Claim Act

The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 was a statute enacted by the United States Congress intended to promote homestead settlement in the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest...

, Coupe established a 320 acre claim in the central part of Whidbey Island upon which the present town of Coupeville

Coupéville

Coupéville is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France....

 now stands.
Aside from the founding of Coupeville, Coupe is perhaps best known for having sailed a full-rigged ship through Deception Pass

Deception Pass

Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island, in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Washington. It connects Skagit Bay, part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca.-History:...

, famously claimed to being the only such passage through the pass without the aid of steam or modern engines.

Coupe was also the sailing master on the Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis (revenue cutter)

The revenue cutter Jefferson Davis was a sailing ship of the United States Revenue Cutter Service. Launched in 1853, it was named for Jefferson Davis, then United States Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, later president of the Confederate States of America. The ship was originally...

, the first revenue cutter on Puget Sound. Coupe retired to his farm on Whidbey Island, remaining there until his death in 1875. He is buried in the Sunnyside Cemetery in the central Whidbey Island area .

Coupe had a son, George M. Coupe, also a ship captain and engineer.