1906 — Oct 18-21, Hurricane, Florida Keys and Maritime, FL –211-328
— >1,500 Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook for 1907. “Hurricanes on…Gulf Coast,” p. 267.[1]
–456-486 Blanchard tally of breakouts below.[2]
— 328 Atlanta Constitution. “328 Killed on the Coast of Florida By Storm.” 10-20-1906, p.1.
–211-328 Blanchard estimated fatality range.[3]
— 211 Wikipedia. “1906 Florida Keys hurricane.” 10-8-2017 edit.
–135 on the Florida East Coast Railway. (Cites Monthly Weather Review, 1906, 479-80.)
—>70 Steamers St. Lucia and Peerless. (Cites: Chicago Daily News Almanac…for 1907.)
— 6 Plantations in the Florida Keys. (Cites: Monthly Weather Review, 1906, 479-80.)
— 193 Rappaport and Partagas (Southeast Florida and Cuba.)
— 164 Blake, et al. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense US Cyclones…, April 2007.
— 164 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT.
— 164 Dunn 1964, 316.
— 164 Hebert/Jarrell/Mayfield. The Deadliest, Costliest…[US] Hurricanes… 1993, p. 80.
— 164 Jarrell et al, 2001.
— 164 Sav 1974.[4]
— 160 Norcross. (Referring to railroad workers killed on the Keys.)
— 134 Rappaport and Partagas. 1995.
Elliott Key ( 250)
–>250 Boston Post. “Hundreds Die in Tidal Wave.” 10-20-1906, p. 1.[5]
Jupiter area plantations ( 6)[6]
Matocumbo Key ( ~50)
–~50 from dredges. Baltimore Sun. “Many Fatalities Reported.” 10-21-1906, p. 1.[7]
Maritime (135-180)
–135-180 Blanchard estimate.[8]
— 1,200 Workmen on East Coast Extension vessels/craft.[9]
— ~135 Houseboats and other East Coast Extension vessels. (MWR. AMS, Oct 1906, p. 479.)[10]
— 124 Workmen on East Coast Extension vessels/craft.[11]
— 104 Houseboat No. 4. NYT. “104 Men Drowned on Florida Houseboat.” 10-23-1906, p. 5.[12]
— 101 Barge No. 4. Baltimore Sun. “Saved 49 out of 150.” 10-21-1906, p. 1.[13]
— >100 East Coast Extension quarter boats. (Monthly Weather Review. AMS, Oct 1906, p. 479.)
— >100 East Coast Extension quarter boats. Landsea and Partagas. Year 1906, p. 45.[14]
— 50 Barge at Elliot Key. Atlanta Constitution. (Box, top of page, datelined Miami, Oct 19.)[15]
— ~35 Steamer Peerless. Baltimore Sun. “Many Fatalities Reported.” 10-21-1906, p. 1.[16]
— 35 Steamer St. Lucie. Baltimore Sun. “Many Fatalities Reported.” 10-21-1906, p. 1.[17]
— 35 Steamer St. Lucie. Barnes. Florida’s Hurricane History. 1998, p. 90.
— 28 Steamer St. Lucie. Atlanta Constitution. “328 Killed on the Coast of…” 10-20-1906, p.1.
— 25 Steamer St. Lucie. Atlanta Constitution. (Box at top of page, datelined Miami, Oct 19.)
— 23 Steamer St. Lucie. (Monthly Weather Review. AMS, Oct 1906, p. 479.)
— 21 Steamer St. Lucie Sinks, Oct 18. (Berman. Encyclopedia of…Shipwrecks. 1972, 143.)
— 21 Steamer St. Lucie. (Singer. Shipwrecks of Florida (2nd Ed.), 1993, p.127.)
— 10? Florida Fish and Produce company’s fleet.[18]
Narrative Information
Singer: “St. Lucie – Sidewheel steamer (steel), 165 tons, built in 1888 at Wilmington, 122’ x 24’ x 4.2’, Captain Bravo. Foundered during a storm, Oct. 18, 1906, off Elliot Key 21 lives lost. She was a famous Indian River steamer.” (Singer. Shipwrecks of Florida (2nd Ed.), 1993, p. 127.)
Newspaper
Oct 18: “….The conductor of a train which late last night reached Fort Pierce, Fla., from Miami, reported terrible destruction there by the hurricane. Fully 100 houses had been blown down, and Miami was in a demoralized condition….
“The storm which cut off Havana traveled northeast and early yesterday hit the east coast of Florida, isolating the entire State south of Jacksonville. Just before the wires connecting Jacksonville with the south went down the operator at Miami reported a big storm and an unusually high tide. The last word from his said that the water was two feet deep in the telegraph office, and that the low streets were flooded.
“About the same time word came from St. Augustine that the tide had reached the highest point in ten years and that the bay front was inundated.
“The storm, according to the Washington Weather Bureau, passed over the Sand Key and Key West at 2 A.M. yesterday, the wind reaching a velocity of seventy-two miles an hour at Sand Key. The storm was described as a ‘tropical disturbance of small diameter,[19] but of great severity.’ It was moving north-northeast, and at the time the Government bulletin was issued was apparently central off the southeastern Florida coast…..
“Jacksonville, Fla., Oct 18.–A severe storm raged to-day on the east coast of Florida, but the wires went down early in the day, and it was impossible to obtain details….” (New York Times. “Havana Cut Off; Havoc at Miami.” 10-19-1906, p. 1.)
Oct 19: “Washington, October 19.–The tropical hurricane which swept from Cuba to the Bahamas now appears to be raging with full force about two hundred miles out in the Atlantic, its only shore effect tonight being a falling barometer and a 25-mile wind off the South Carolina coast. The hurricane, according to Forecaster Henry, of the weather bureau, seems to have been temporarily checked in its northeastward movement and has not advanced in the past twelve hours, nor do the indications point to any change in the next twenty-four hours….
“Miami, Fla., October 19.–The reported loss of the steamer St. Lucie, Captain Bravo commanding, has proven true. This evening one of the Flagler steamers arrived in port, bringing sixty wounded, who were taken to the hospital. It is said that there are twenty-eight bodies which will be brought up tomorrow….The steamer St. Lucie belongs to the fleet of the Florida East Coast railway and is employed in carrying workmen to and from the extensive work on the keys. Despite the storm warning, Captain Bravo sailed for Key Largo with a large number of workmen aboard. The steamer was caught in the storm and was driven ashore with the awful loss of life reported.
“It is believed now that a portion of the Florida Fish and Produce company’s fleet was lost with loss of life. Manager Adams sent out one of their boats this morning to search for the men and boats and on its return the crew reported no sign of the fleet. The fishing nets were found strews upon the shore….
“Another disaster is the breaking loss of a barge at Elliot Key with 100 people on board. She was picked up on the Bahama Islands. Fifty of her people were drowned.” (Atlanta Constitution. “328 Killed on the Coast of Florida By Storm.” 10-20-1906, p. 1.)
Oct 21: “Key West, Fla., Oct. 21.–Survivors from one of the house boats of the Florida East Coast Railway extension along the keys tell a harrowing tale of death and destruction during the storm of Thursday. W. P. Dusenberry, civil engineer in charge of the work on Long Key, who miraculously escaped death, arrived here on the Russian steamer Jennie, among other survivors rescued. He says house boat No. 4, on which were 150 men, was struck by the storm at 5 o’clock Thursday morning and was driven out into the Gulf through Hawks channel. At 6 o’clock the house boat began to break up and as the great waves hit her, men singly and in bunches of two and three were washed into the sea and drowned. Some went below for protection, but when the top of the boat was carried away and waves rushed in and the boat went to pieces, thirty or forty of the men being crushed to death in the collapse, the others grabbing timbers to save them from drowning. Engineer Dusenberry was in the hold, but succeeded in getting a log and floated until Friday night, when he was rescued.
“On one piece of timber sixteen men were clinging and nine hanging to another. The side of the house boat was crowded with men. It turned over three times, each time reducing the number.
“The Russian steamer Jennie sighted the wreckage and succeeded in rescuing the forty-nine men who were brought here….” (Galveston Daily News, TX. “Drowned Like Rats.” 10-22-1906, p1.)
Sources
Atlanta Constitution. “328 Killed on the Coast of Florida By Storm.” 10-20-1906, p. 1. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/atlanta-constitution-oct-20-1906-p-1/
Baltimore Sun. “Many Fatalities Reported.” 10-21-1906, p. 1. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/baltimore-sun-oct-21-1906-p-1/
Baltimore Sun. “Saved 49 out of 150.” 10-21-1906, p. 1. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/baltimore-sun-oct-21-1906-p-1/
Barnes, Jay. Florida’s Hurricane History. Chapel Hill and London: UNC Press, 1998.
Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. Boston: Mariners Press Inc., 1972.
Blake, Eric S., Edward N. Rappaport, and Christopher W. Landsea. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Cyclones From 1851 to 2006. Miami, FL: National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, April 15, 2007 update, 45 pages. Accessed at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/Deadliest_Costliest.shtml
Boston Post. “Hundreds Die in Tidal Wave.” 10-20-1906, p. 1. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-oct-20-1906-p-1/
Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database. Louvain, Belgium: Universite Catholique do Louvain. Accessed at: http://www.emdat.be/
Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook for 1907. “Hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.” Chicago Daily News Co., 1906. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=DW4TAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&vq=Chicago+almanac+hurricane+1906#v=onepage&q=Chicago%20almanac%20hurricane%201906&f=false
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. “Drowned Like Rats.” 10-22-1906, p. 1. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/galveston-daily-news-oct-22-1906-p-1/
Hebert, Paul J., J.D. Jarrell, Max Mayfield. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes of This Century (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS-NHC-31). Miami, FL: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Feb 1993, 41 pages.
Jarrell, Jerry D., Max Mayfield, Edward N. Rappaport, Christopher W. Landsea. The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes From 1900 to 2000 (And Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts) (NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS TPC-1). Miami, FL: NOAA NWS and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, October 2001 Update. Accessed at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/deadly/index.html
Landsea, Christopher and Jose Fernandez-Partagas. Year 1906. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Landsea/Partagas/1905-1908/1906_2.pdf
Monthly Weather Review. “The West Indian Hurricane of the Second Decade of October, 1906.” American Meteorological Society, October 1906, p. 479. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/mwr_pdf/1906.pdf
New York Times. “104 Men Drowned on Florida Houseboat.” 10-23-1906, p. 5. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-oct-23-1906-p-5/
New York Times. “Havana Cut Off; Havoc at Miami.” 10-19-1906, p. 1. Accessed 11-14-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-oct-19-1906-p-1/
Norcross, Bryan. Hurricane Almanac: The Essential Guide to Storms Past, Present, and Future. NY: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2007.
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
Sav, Thomas G. Natural Disasters: Some Empirical and Economic Considerations (Final Report, NBSIR 74-473). Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards, Institute for Applied Technology, Center for Building Technology, Building Economics Section, February 1974, 74 pages. Accessed 7-12-2017 at: http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build74/PDF/b74006.pdf
Singer, Steven D. Shipwrecks of Florida: A Comprehensive Listing (2nd Ed.). Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, Inc., 1998. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=6j6kjZQReqkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false
[1] “More than 1,500 lives were lost in a hurricane which swept the southeastern coast of Florida and the northern part of Cuba Oct. 17-18, 1906. Elliott’s key was engulfed by a tidal wave and 250 persons were drowned; seventy were lost from the steamers St. Lucia and Peerless and eighteen were killed in the city of Havana….The largest number of casualties was on barges and dredges used by contractors building a railroad along the keys to connect the mainland with Key West. About 1,200 workmen were reported drowned.” We do not use for lives-lost-estimate — out of keeping with other estimates.
[2] This is a conundrum. If the reporting reflected below is accurate, or even just close to accurate, then approximately 456-486 lives were lost. In that we do not know the breakouts used to derive the 134-193 figures, we must assume that one or more of the breakouts below were discounted (such as Elliott Key and Matocumbo Key).
[3] It appears to us that a minimum of approximately 211 lives were lost, as reported in the Wikipedia article. Our tally of fatalities reported at the time is far higher — 456-486 lives lost. In that this range is far higher than subsequent reporting we do not feel confident in the range. We choose, instead, to use as the high end or our range the figure of 328 lives lost as reported by the Atlanta Constitution on October 20, though, it may be that this was an overestimate.
[4] Cites: Don G. Friedman, “Prospective View of Natural Disasters in the United States” (paper presented at the System Safety Society Symposium, July 18, 1973), Table 2.
[5] “Elliot’s Key was engulfed by a tidal wave [storm surge]. Captain Brava of the St. Lucie, who is among the rescued, states that all the inhabitants of the place, more than 250, were drowned.”
[6] From report of H. P. Hardin, Observer, Weather Bureau, Jupiter, Fla.: “….Six lives are reported to have been lost on plantations…destroyed….” (Monthly Weather Review. AMS, Oct 1906, p. 479.)
[7] “It is estimated that 50 lives were lost on dredges at lower Matocumbo…Two men were lost on the pile driver.”
[8] We derive this figure by using 135 figure for workmen on the East Coast Extension vessels/craft (including St. Lucie) as the low-end of the range. For the high end we add approximately 35 from Steamer Peerless, and guestimate of 10 lives lost from Fish and Produce Co. fleet.
[9] Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook for 1907. “Hurricanes on…Gulf Coast,” p. 267.
[10] From report of H. P. Hardin, Observer, Weather Bureau, Jupiter, Fla.: :The storm caught most of the several hundred laborers and mechanics of the railway extension on houseboats and other clumsy craft moored to piling for living quarters. These boats were torn from their moorings and beaten to pieces by the seas. The loss of life among these men was about 135.”
[11] Barnes, Jay. Florida’s Hurricane History. Chapel Hill and London: UNC Press, 1998, p. 89.
[12] “Mobile, Ala., Oct. 22.–Charles Anderson [and other survivors] from Houseboat 4…were landed in this city to-day by the Mallory liner Colorado. They report 104 men drowned off this boat.”
[13] “Key West, Fla., Oct 20.–The Austrian steamer Jennie…has called at this port to land 49 workmen picked up at sea near the Bahama Coast, 160 miles from Key West. The men were part of a force of 150 workingmen belonging to Barge No. 4, engaged on East Coast extension work. Most of the others were either killed or drowned in the storm early Thursday. Nine other barges crowded with workingmen…were at sea with Barge No. 4. There is no news of them and it is feared all were lost…” A later account notes that Barges 6 and 7 “are now safe on the other side of Biscayne bay.” (Baltimore Sun. “Many Fatalities Reported.” 10-21-1906, p. 1.)
[14] “The quarter boats of the East Coast Extension were carried out to sea and many lives, probably more than 100, were lost.”
[15] “Another disaster is the breaking loss of a barge at Elliot Key with 100 people on board. She was picked up on the Bahama Islands. Fifty of her people were drowned.”
[16] After noting 35 deaths from the steamer St. Lucie, it is noted “The steamer Peerless also lost about the same number, who were blown off the vessel.”
[17] “Jacksonville, Fla., Oct. 20.–A special to the Metropolis from Miami, Fla., says: ‘When the Miami steamer St. Lucie was crushed by th high waves in Thursday’s hurricane, out of 100 persons on board 35 were lost.”
[18] Our guestimate. Only reported that the fishing fleet was lost — no indication of number of vessels or men. (Atlanta Constitution. “328 Killed on the Coast of Fl…” 10-20-1906, p.1.)
[19] Elsewhere in this article the width of the hurricane was noted as “hardly more than seventy miles…”