1887 — Sep 21, Hurricane, mid-TX coast to Brownsville, US tender Mignonette lost/16– 16

–16 U.S. tender/schooner Mignonette, off Brazos Santiago, TX, in hurricane of 9-21-1887.
–14 Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised). 1964, p. 322.*
–14 Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, p. 27.

*Blanchard note: We transcribe below a September 26 Galveston Daily News “Marine Disaster” article which notes the disappearance of the Mignonette with a crew of fourteen men. We speculate that both Dunn and Miller and Roth, are referring to this loss in their fatality toll of 14 sailors lost at sea. We have not been able to locate any reference to land losses. As can be seen from the US House of Representatives report on providing funds to the dependents of those onboard, the names of sixteen men onboard are provided as well as a note that the additional names were the results of changes made since the last muster-roll.

Narrative Information

Weather Bureau, Monthly Weather Service: “5 [Depression No. 5 of the season]-This depression is given a probable track east of the Windward Islands to Yucatan, the period embraced by its passage over the Caribbean Sea including the 11th and the 17th. During the latter date the storm moved northwest over Yucatan into the Gulf of Mexico, and advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande River by the 21st. Owing to the limited number of reports received from the region traversed by this depression, its charted track over the Caribbean Sea is only
approximately correct, and accurate data relative to its intensity cannot be given. With its advance over the Gulf of Mexico, however, it was accompanied by gales of hurricane force.” (Weather Bureau. “North Atlantic Storms During September, 1887.” Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 15, Issue 9, September 1887, p. 245.)

Roth: “September 21st, 1887: This cyclone eyed the battered Middle Coast before turning west. Brownsville saw its second hurricane in as many years. Winds were observed out of the north as high as 78 mph. The pressure fell to 28.93” and stayed below 29 inches for several hours. Subsequent flooding from the 36 hours of rain invaded low areas, damaging crops. Fourteen sailors were lost at sea. In Galveston, three days of wind were seen as fringe effects from the storm; as high as 36 mph between 8 and 9 PM at the observation site and 50 mph along the immediate coast. Water only invaded low areas on the island. Corpus Christi fared well, only experiencing a northeast gale, but no damage.” (Roth. Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010, p. 27.)

US House of Representatives: “Crew of the Mignonette.

“March 7, 1888. – Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed.

“Mr. Simmons, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following Report [To accompany bill H.R. 7047.]

“The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H.R. 7047) for the relief of the minor children or dependent parents of the lost crew of the United States tender Mignonette, submit the following report.

“This is a bill to pay to the widows or minor children or dependent parents of the lost crew of the United States tender Mignonette twelve months’ pay of those that were lost. The Mignonette, while engaged in the service of the United States, was blown from her moorings at Brazos Santiago, Texas, over the bar and to sea during the hurricane of September 21, 1887, and has not been heard from since.

“The facts concerning the loss of this vessel and her officers and crew, and the mechanics and laborers who were on her in the regular line of duty, are set forth in the letters which are appended to and made a part of this report…..

Treasury Department,
Office of the Light-House Board,
Washington, February 25, 1888.

“Sir: The board has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communication from the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Claims, addressed to the Department and forwarded to this office.

“It is indorsed on the back of H.R. bill 7047, ‘For the relief of certain heirs of the officers and crew of the United States light-house schooner Mignonette, lost near Brazos Santiago, Tex., in the storm of September 21, 1887.’

“In this communication the board is requested to forward an account of the circumstances connected with the loss of the Mignonette, the number of the officers and crew, the salary paid them, and all the circumstances on record regarding the matter.

“In reply the board begs leave to state that –

“The tender Mignonette was blown from her moorings at Brazos Santiago, Tex., over the bar and to sea during the hurricane of September 21, 1887, and has not since been heard from. She was last seen by the keeper of the Brazos Santiago light on that date going through the breakers over the bar in a smother of spray. A revenue cutter was sent to look for her as soon as possible, and reported, after a thorough search, that nothing had been seen or heard of her. The engineer of the eighth light-house district, Maj. W. H. Heuer, U.S.A., reported on October 22, 1887, that ‘as it is now a little more than a month since the Mignonette has disappeared, and as in the mean time there has been at least one and probably two cyclones in the Gulf of Mexico, it is feared that the vessel and all on board are lost.’ She has not been heard of since that time.

“The following is a list of the persons on board the Mignonette at the time of her loss:

W. J. Lewis, master. Paul Lawrence, seaman.
Robert Gwynn, mate. Frank Sherfey, carpenter.
Moses Duke, cook. A. Bowman, carpenter.
Napoleon Bonds, steward. A. Hansel, carpenter.
Fred. Bahleke, seaman. Peyton Gabriel, blacksmith.
Francis Duraud, seaman. James Gold, laborer.
Charles Johnson, seaman. Charles King, laborer.
Robert Kremlin, seaman. A. Kreon, laborer.

“There is inclosed [sic] a copy of the muster-roll and description of those on board the vessel on the 1st of July last. The discrepancy between the muster-roll and the list above given is occasioned by the changes which took place in the personnel of the schooner between the date of the muster-roll and the date of the storm

“The mechanics and laborers who were on the vessel at the time of her loss constituted a repair party who had been sent to the light-house at Brazos Santiago, and were en route to other light-houses where further repairs were to be made. They were on the vessel in the regular line of their duty, as much so as the officers and seamen of the vessel itself. It is therefore respectfully suggested that the bill in question be amended by the insertion of the words ‘mechanics and laborers,’ after the word ‘crew,’ in line six, in order that the heirs of the repair party may be benefited to the same extent as will be the heirs of those persons belonging to the schooner.

“The House bill 7047, above referred to, with the communication from the chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Claims indorsed thereon, is inclosed, a copy having been retained for the files of this office.
“Respectfully, S. C. Rowan, Vice-Admiral, U.S. Navy, Chairman.”

(United States House of Representatives, 50th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 919. “Crew of the Mignonette,” 1888, p. 2.)

Newspapers

Sep 22: “Brownsville, Tex., September 22. – A violent cyclone visited this city on the night of the 21st instant, carrying destruction in its path. The rain accompanying the storm deluged the country for miles around, and the destruction to property and crops can hardly be estimated. The…crops of Messrs. Brulay & Armendaiz, embracing hundreds of acres, have been swept away and not a stalk stands as a reminder of the storm of the past few hours. These gentlemen estimate their loss away up into the thousands. Mr. Brulay has also suffered much damage in his electric light plant at Santa Cruz, opposite Brownsville, the machinery of which was entirely under water, and from the pressure of the debris that had accumulated there was broken almost beyond recognition.

“The Rio Grande river was swollen and raged like a small sea, and when its waters had reached its highest it submerged the whole country for miles around, causing many families to flee to other points for safety.

“The mean velocity of the wind, as reported by the signal service here, was eight miles per hour, and the rainfall by actual measurement was ten inches. The destruction to property here, as well as to the property in the surrounding country, is not total, but the damage from the rain is material. In fact, there is not a house here that is not more or less of less value to-day than it was before the cyclone. There is hardly a tree standing, and those that survived the storm look shattered and torn. The fruit trees are as bare to-day as they were during the cold of last winter.

“The roof of the Masonic lodge here was lifted up and shattered into fragments. The warehouse of Mr. Scanlan, which was used for the storage of oil, collapsed and was carried with a the wind to other parts. Mr. Bloomberg, a merchant here, lost furniture in his private residence to the value of $3000.

“Many Mexican families whose jacals [thatched huts] were toppled over by the wind were cared for by the humanity of the Brownsvillites, and comfortably fixed in the public buildings and other places of safety. Those people lost all they had, which, to say the least, was not much.

“Numerous porches and galleries were torn from buildings in the resident portion of the town and carried away.

“As yet the telephone system here is mixed and it will be some time before it will be in working order.

“The weather is clearing now.” (Galveston Daily News, TX. “Caught The Big Cyclone. Brownsville Suffers Severely.” 9-23-1887, p. 1.)

Sep 24: “Marine Disasters. Two Schooners and a Lighthouse Tender Supposed to Have Been Lost in the Brownsville Cyclone.

“Brownsville, Tex., September 24. – It is reported from Point Isabel that the schooners Romp and Maude B. broke loose from their moorings during the hurricane of the 20th [unclear] instant and have not been heard from since, and that the lighthouse tender Mignonette has not been heard from since Tuesday morning. She broke loose from her moorings near Padre island. The sound of her foghorn was heard several times between 1 and 2 a.m., and that at 7:10 a.m. she passed over the bar on which she had struck when she first broke from her moorings. She had on board fourteen men, crew and mechanics. She was a stout and strongly built boat of 110 tons, and it is believed that if she succeeded in making her way in the deep of the gulf she is probably all right. The coast was searched as far as the mouth of the river, but no signs of her could be found. No traces of the Romp or the Maud B. [sic] could be discovered.” (Galveston Daily News, “Marine Disasters.” 9-25-1887, p. 8.)

[Blanchard note: I can find no further mentions of the fate of the Romp or the Maude B.]

Sources

Dunn, Gordon E. and Banner I. Miller. Atlantic Hurricanes (Revised Edition). Baton Rouge LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964, 377 pages.

Galveston Daily News, TX. “Caught The Big Cyclone. Brownsville Suffers Severely.” 9-23-1887, p.1. Accessed 9-18-2022: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-sep-23-1887-p-4/

Galveston Daily News, “Marine Disasters.” 9-25-1887, p. 8. Accessed 9-18-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-sep-25-1887-p-8/

Weather Bureau. “North Atlantic Storms During September, 1887.” Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 15, Issue 9, September 1887, p. 245. Accessed 9-18-2022 at: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/15/9/mwre.15.issue-9.xml

Roth, David (National Weather Service). Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs, MD: NWS. 1-17-2010 update. Accessed 11-22-2017 at: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf
Re-accessed 9-18-2022 at: https://www.weather.gov/media/lch/events/txhurricanehistory.pdf

United States House of Representatives, 50th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 919. “Crew of the Mignonette,” 1888, p. 2. Accessed 9-18-2022 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/House_documents/GjtzMFwqHSwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=light+hours+boat+%22mignonette%22+september+%221887%22&pg=RA46-PP31&printsec=frontcover