1904 – Nov 13, hurricane, FL to Northeast and Great Lakes, especially coastal NC –10-11

–10-11 Blanchard estimated death toll.

Blanchard note on derivation of estimated death toll: There is agreement between Barnes and newspaper accounts that four men were lost when the schooner Missouri capsized in the Pamlico River. Barnes writes that “several” people were lost from a Hatteras Island fishing lodge which was swept away, whereas a newspaper account of the loss at Kinnakeet which is near Hatteras, had the loss at two. Barnes writes that four crewmen lost their lives when the New Inlet Life Saving Station was swept away, whereas all the press reports we have seen note “several” crewmen were lost. Then there was the one loss off the tug John Gregory in the Cleveland harbor.

Barnes was incorrect in noting that 8 people drowned from a yacht in the Pamlico Sound, as accounts below show. Thus, subtracting these eight, his death toll for NC comes to 11, based on our use of the number three for his statement that “several” people were lost at the Hatteras Island fishing lodge.

Our own tally based on newspaper accounts for NC losses comes to approximately nine based on substituting “3” for the “several” lives noted as lost when the New Inlet Life Saving Station was destroyed. When we add the one live lost from the tug John Gregory in the Cleveland harbor we derive an approximate loss of life of at least 10. If four lives were lost at the New Inlet Life Saving Station, then the loss of life would have been eleven.

North Carolina (9-11)
–~19 Barnes, Jay. North Carolina’s Hurricane History (3rd Ed.). 2001, p. 64.
–~3 (“Several”) Hatteras Island fishing lodge swept away. [We use “3” for “several.”]
— 4 New Inlet Life Saving Station swept away by storm surge.
— 8 Pamlico Sound. Yacht sank. Blanchard: Not accurate, no loss of life.
— 4 Washington area. Schooner Missouri sank; crewmen.
–~9 Blanchard tally from the locality breakouts below.
— 4 Indian Head, near Washington. Schooner Missouri capsized, all four crew lost.
— 2 Kinnakeet [Outer Banks]. Fishing lodge on beach washed into Pamlico Sound.
–~3 New Inlet Life Saving Station destroyed. We use “3” for the reported “several” lives lost.

Ohio ( 1)
–1 Cleveland. Tug John Gregory foundered off Cleveland harbor; Captain Kinney drowned.

Narrative Information

Barnes: “The first severe hurricane of the twentieth century to move across the North Carolina coast came late in 1904, on November 13. This category-three storm passed near Hatteras during the morning and brought high tides and heavy rains to the entire coast. Two schooners were wrecked near Cape Fear, and extensive damage was reported at Fort Caswell. At New Inlet, the storm surge swept away the Life-Saving Station, and four crewmen drowned. Four more lives were lost in the wreck of the Missouri, a schooner that went down near Washington, North Carolina. Several lives were lost when a fishing lodge on Hatteras Island was swept away by the tides, and eight more people drowned when a yacht sank in Pamlico Sound [sic.]. As the hurricane moved past the coast a large cold-air mass was drawn into the cyclone’s circulation, and an early snow fell across much of the state.” (p. 64)

Newspapers

Nov 15: “The wide-spread storm which swept over the entire east last Saturday night has caused enormous damage and has cut off New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore from the rest of the country. All telegraph and telephone wires were carried down, and much damage is believed to have been done to the property of shipping along the lower great lakes. Many vessels had narrow escapes. The Buffalo-Cleveland steamer Somer City, from Buffalo, reached Cleveland, Ohio, several hours late and with her bulwark stove in. The tug John Gregory foundered off Cleveland harbor and Captain Kinney, of Buffalo, was drowned.

“The storm started off the Florida coast Sunday [Saturday] night [12th] and gained strength as it swept northward. A hurricane wind, accompanied by rain, which turned to snow, swept north of Hatteras. The damage to telegraph and telephone lines is the greatest since the blizzard of 1888. It is feared that there has been great damage to shipping, but it is impossible to learn anything until the wires are repaired. Up to noon yesterday New York was still cut off from the rest of the country. It is reported to loss by the sleet storm will reach millions.” (Yorkville Enquirer, SC. “Scraps and Facts.” 11-15-1904, p. 2.)

Nov 17, Washington Post: “Norfolk, Va., Nov. 16.—Advices from the Carolina coast are to the effect that the New Inlet life saving station was destroyed by Sunday’s hurricane, and that several of the crew stationed there were drowned. It is said a tidal wave washed across the strip of land separating the ocean from the sound and carried the station building away. The news was brought to Elizabeth City to-day by seamen.

“News of the schooner Myra W. Spears’ crew reached here to-night from Chicamacomico, N.C., where the vessel grounded last week. They confirm the fears held here that the vessel could not survive Sunday’s storm. She went completely to pieces during the gale. The men report the storm washed the sea entirely over the land separating the ocean from the sound, and say several houses were carried away. New Inlet is below Pea Island, at which point communication stops, and no further confirmation regarding the destruction of the life saving statin there and the loss of life can be secured tonight.

“A dispatch from Washington, N.C., says that Capt. Charles Williams and three others left Washington Saturday on the schooner Missouri for their home in Hyde County. Stormbound at Indian Head, they anchored off the shore, but after dinner Sunday the wind blew them from this anchorage, and the boat was capsized and all on board drowned. The names of the crew cannot be obtained at this time. None of the bodies have been recovered….

“A report was received here this morning to the effect that the yacht Roberta, bout to Florida with a hunting party, had foundered during the storm in Pamlico Sound, with all on board. This report, however, was later discredited. Oyster Inspector Spencer Davis arrived at Elizabeth City from Roanoke Island on the steamer Wagner to-day. He said he passed the schooner yacht Roberta at anchor off the Island this morning. Mr. Davis also said he learned at Manteo that when the storm came up the people on board the Roberta left her at anchor and took to the shore in small boars. The yacht rode the gale, and when the wind had subsided the party again boarded her….” (Washington Post. “Live Savers Lost…Tidal Wave Swept Across New Inlet Key.” 11-17-1904, 1.)

Nov 23: “New York was entirely cut off from the South and West Sunday night by a fierce hurricane, accompanied by rain and snow, which swept the Atlantic coast. Starting from Florida Saturday night [12th], the storm of wind and rain came up the coast at almost cyclonic speed. Early Sunday morning [13th] it was central off Cape Hatteras, although its ever-gathering force was felt far to the northward.

“Rain began falling in New York at 5 a.m., and early in the morning changed to a wet snow. The wind, which had been blowing moderately, veered to the southeast and shortly assumed hurricane proportions. At 6 o’clock at night the weather bureau noted a velocity of forty-two miles an hour, which increased to forty-eight miles at 8:30 o’clock. The speed kept up for several hours. At 10 o’clock the storm center was at Block Island [RI], where the barometer showed a pressure of 28.62 inches, with the wind blowing seventy-six miles an hour. At Nantucket the barometer was a trifle higher and the wind sixty miles.

“Wire service out of New York was tied up more effectually Sunday night than at any time since the blizzard of 1888. The Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies had no direct communication with cities further south than Baltimore, and all western points were cut off. The Postal cabled some of its most urgent messages to Canso, N.S. [Nova Scotia] from which point they were wired to Montreal and thence forwarded to Chicago over Canadian Pacific wires.

“Chicago communication with the storm swept center of the East was established in a meager way through repaired lines and telephones during Monday and facts concerning the devastation of the terrific blizzard were received with long interruptions. The business of the Chicago Board of Trade, the Stock Exchange, and in fact, all brokerage establishments, was suspended during the entire day because of the utter impossibility of getting direct wires in working ord4r between Chicago and New York City. Many brokers, eager for quotations, tried early in the day to reach Gotham by sending cablegrams that had to encircle the globe to get there.

“Advices indicate that several persons lost their lives in the storm. Many boats along the Atlantic coast were wrecked or imperiled, and those that were unable to make ports of shelter presumably went down. Valiant rescues were numerous. Scores of small towns were completely isolated. Damage to property in them will aggregate hundreds of thousands of dollars. People living in Scranton, Pa., had to shovel their way out of houses. Three feet of snow fell there. In the vicinity of Harrisburg the downfall was not quite so heavy – the depth measuring not quite so heavy – the depth measuring 23 inches in that section. In New York State the storm’s center was near Albany.” (Greene Iowa Recorder. “Storm Hits The East. Furious Gale, Accompanied by Snow, Sweeps Atlantic Coast.” 11-23-1904, p. 3.)

Sources

Barnes, Jay. North Carolina’s Hurricane History (Third Edition). Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Boston Sunday Globe. “To Home and Friends. Return of Providence Men Who Were on Board the Roberta.” 11-20-1904, p. 4. Accessed 11-16-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-nov-20-1904-p-64/

Greene Iowa Recorder. “Storm Hits The East. Furious Gale, Accompanied by Snow, Sweeps Atlantic Coast.” 11-23-1904, p. 3. Accessed 11-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/greene-iowa-recorder-nov-23-1904-p-3/

United States Steamboat-Inspection Service. Annual Report of the Supervising Inspector-General, Steamboat-Inspection Service, to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1905. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed 11-17-2022 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=LVcpAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Washington Post. “Live Savers Lost. A Tidal Wave Swept Across New Inlet Key.” 11-17-1904, p. 1. Accessed 11-16-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-post-nov-17-1904-p-1/

Wilmington Messenger, NC. “Damage By The Storm. Two Men Drowned at Kinnakeet…” 11-18-1904, p. 5. Accessed 11-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/the-semi-weekly-messenger-nov-18-1904-p-5/

Yorkville Enquirer, SC. “Scraps and Facts.” 11-15-1904, p. 2. Accessed 11-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/yorkville-enquirer-nov-15-1904-p-2/