1806 — Aug 21-24, Hurricane, Carolina’s coastal and maritime, Rose in Bloom upset, NJ–42
–42 Rappaport and Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994. 1995, p. 24.
New Jersey (21)
–21 Rose In Bloom, 20 miles off Barnegat Inlet, NJ. [27 people survived.] Hairr 2008, p. 35.
–21 Rose in Bloom, ~Barnegat Inlet NJ. NWS FO, Philly/Mt. Holly. “Hist. Weather Facts…,”
–21 “ “ Nash. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 678.
North Carolina (~5)
—>10 Wilmington and vicinity and coastal waters. (Blanchard.)[1]
— 1 Core Banks near Portsmouth (Outer Banks). Body washed ashore.
— >5 Wilmington and vicinity. Hairr 2008, p. 33, citing a Wilmington newspaper.[2]
Narrative Information
Hairr: “The Twin Hurricanes of 1806.
“The year 1806 was an active one along the Carolina coast. Two powerful hurricanes came ashore, ravaging the area between Charleston and the Outer Banks. Ships were wrecked, buildings damaged and crops ruined. Lighthouses at Hatteras and Shell Castle were temporarily put out of commission, while the lighthouse at Georgetown was totally destroyed.
“The first hurricane to affect the coast that year made its presence felt in South Carolina on August 21, 1806. The storm passed by offshore, giving Charleston only a glancing blow, so damage was not particularly catastrophic. Several ships were wrecked or driven ashore in the harbor, including a United States Revenue Service Cutter. Farther up the coast, at the mouth of Winyah Bay, the storm’s winds blew down the wooden Georgetown Lighthouse.
“One observer in Georgetown noted the conditions of the damage near his town left in the storm’s wake. ‘The crops on [end of p. 31] the upland have been considerable damaged, and the roads rendered almost impassable from the number of trees blown across them. Our town suffered but little damage.’
“The storm continued north and made landfall on the North Carolina coast on August 22, 1806, near the mouth [end of p. 32] of the Cape Fear River. At Smithville, several ships were damaged and much property destroyed, including the wharves lining the riverbank. One eyewitness in this town reported: ‘Happily no lives were lost, but we fear much damage has happened along the coasts and to the crops, it being allowed to be the severest hurricane and longest storm ever known here.’
“Upriver at Wilmington, the slow-moving storm caused widespread destruction. The winds began blowing at hurricane force on Friday morning, August 22, and continued until finally subsiding on Saturday afternoon. ‘We have witnessed the most violent and destructive storm of wind and rain ever before known here,’ a writer for the Wilmington newspaper wrote…. [p. 33.]
“One of the casualties of this storm was the Governor Williams, a U.S. Revenue cutter that was dismasted and driven ashore near Bald Head Island during the hurricane. Thomas Coles and Jonathon Price were using the vessel as they mapped the coast, and were at the time charting the Frying Pan Shoals. The other cutter, Diligence, was in port in Wilmington and suffered no damage. The Governor Williams was soon thereafter refloated, and the party continued their work, heading north up the coast to work in the vicinity of Ocracoke.
“The center of the storm passed over New Bern, as an account of the storm written there notes that the winds began blowing Friday out of the northeast and ‘shifted about to every point of the compass. Damage at this city, however, was not extensive.’ Most of the fierce winds and rains apparently stayed east and south of the city.
“The hurricane emerged back over the water between Cape Henry and Cape Hatteras, headed northeast up the coast. Norfolk, Virginia, reported damaging winds and heavy rains. Farther north, on the Massachusetts coast, it was estimated that the storm dumped over thirty inches of rain at Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard.
“The most notable casualty from this storm was the ship Rose In Bloom, which was buffeted by the heavy seas and winds while en route from Charleston to New York. It had safely passed the treacherous waters of the Outer Banks, but on Sunday, August 24, 1806, twenty miles off [end of p. 34] Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey, the ship was struck by a wave that ‘threw her on her beam ends.’ Twenty-one of the forty-eight people on board perished….
“After the storm moved on, many vessels were discovered wrecked upon the sandy shores of North Carolina. The identities of most were unknown, as they were ‘broken in pieces’ and their remains had been deposited on the beach. Among those identified on the Bogue Banks were the Adolphus and the Atlantic….Folks on the Core Banks near Portsmouth [Outer Banks] made some interesting finds: ‘The corpse of a man who perished in the storm has drifted ashore, but so much eaten by the fishes that he cannot be known.’….” [p. 36] (Hairr 2008)
NWS FO, Philly/Mt. Holly: “Aug 23 …1806…A hurricane of great size and destructive power raged along the Atlantic coast from the 21st to the 24th. As the slow moving storm gained forward speed, shipping suffered severely. The coastal ship “Rose in Bloom” upset during the morning in the NE gales off Barnegat Inlet, NJ, with the loss of 21 of the 49 persons aboard. This disaster received wide national publicity. (EAH).” (NWS FO, Philly/Mt. Holly. “Hist. Weather Facts…,” 10-17-2005.)
Rappaport and Partagas: “Appendix 1. Atlantic tropical cyclones causing at least 25 deaths.
“[No.] 202. Offshore US E coast 23 Aug 1806 42.”[3]
Rubillo: “The coastal hurricanes of 1806….This storm made landfall near Cape Fear in North Carolina. A local newspaper there described it as the ‘most violent and destructive storm of wind and rain ever known here.’[4] That is a powerful assertion coming, as it did, from someone living near the ‘graveyard of ships’ — the point along the coast where the Gulf Stream (which nurtures and drives hurricanes) collides with the cold waters of the Labrador Current flowing from the opposite direction. This hurricane ‘blew with utmost violence’ for over twenty-four hours before abating. ‘The tide rose to a height hitherto unknown and ‘when the wind shifted to southwest it seemed to threaten universal destruction’.’[5] ….” (Rubillo 2006, pp. 54-55.)
Sources
Hairr, John. The Great Hurricanes of North Carolina. Charleston: History Press, 2008.
Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Philadelphia/Mount Holly. “Historical Weather Facts for the Philadelphia/Mt. Holly, NJ Forecast Area.” Mount Holly, NJ: NWS FO, Oct 17, 2005 update. Accessed at: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/hist_phi.html#0311
Rappaport, Edward N. and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1994 (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47). Coral Gables, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, January 1995, 42 pages. Accessed 8-20-2017 at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/NWS-NHC-1995-47.pdf
Rubillo, Tom. Hurricane Destruction in South Carolina: Hell and High Water. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006.
[1] We surmise that at least ten people must have died based on statements that (1) five died in Wilmington and vicinity, (2) one body washed ashore on Core Banks, and (3) after the storm passed “many vessels were discovered wrecked upon the sandy shores of North Carolina.” (We make assumption that at least four lives were thus lost). In addition, it should be noted that Rappaport and Partagas note 42 deaths while identifying only 21 (Rose In Bloom).
[2] “….Mr. Isaac Baldwin was killed by the falling of an old burnt wall, and we hear that several Negroes have been killed and one drowned on plantations in the vicinity.” [Blanchard note: in order to add to the tabulation we convert “several” to >3.
[3] Cites: Chapman, D. J. “Our southern summer storm.” Report from National Weather Service, Norfolk, Virginia.
[4] Cites: Wilmington Gazette, (Wilmington, NC), August 26, 1806.
[5] Cites: Ludlum, Early American Hurricanes, p. 56.