1818 — Sep 12-13, Hurricane, Galveston Island and ships in the area (14 lost), TX <1000
— ~1,000 Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Pubs., 1991, p. 47.
— <1,000 Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. 1-17-2010 update, p. 8.
Narrative Information
Cartwright: “A slave trader named Randall Jones who visited the Island [Galveston] in the summer of 1818 reported that a number of foreign schooners were anchored in the harbor, including a Yankee Clipper from Boston that came to swap potatoes and cured pork for sugar, cocoa, coffee, and wine. More buccaneers were arriving daily, some with women. Many seamen took black mistresses from the populations of slaves kept in Galveston to do domestic chores and handle cargo. New huts were being constructed all across the eastern end of the island; the population had swelled to nearly 2,000.
“A hurricane that hit late in the summer almost wiped out the colony. At the storm’s approach, Lafitte ordered that the women be evacuated to the Island’s highest point, the ridge occupied by La Mansion Rouge and the fort. Then Lafitte and some of his officers went aboard a schooner anchored in the bay to ride out the storm. It was clear that this was a major hurricane. By midnight most of the Island was under water. More than a dozen ships were blown across the bay and torn to splinters. Houses vanished under walls of water. The fort collapsed. La Mansion Rouge stood against the gale, but sometime that night a cannon crashed through the tower floor into a room where the women were huddled. Many were killed[1] and many more maimed, including a quadroon girl named Jeannette, who was either Lafitte’s mistress, his housekeeper, or his daughter, depending on which story one believes. By dawn the storm had passed, but the settlement was in ruins, and hundreds of corpses were strewn along the beach. One historian estimates that at least half the members of the colony died.” (Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1991, p. 47.)
Roth: “September 12-14th, 1818:[2] Among the earliest accounts of a direct hurricane strike on the Texas coast was this storm which formed near the Cayman Islands, then moved west into the Bay of Campeche and moved northwest to hit Galvez’s town (Galveston). It was described as a storm of extraordinary violence. Settlers on the island saw the signs of an approaching storm, but did not think anything of it since they had been through similar situations before. They anchored their boats and went to sleep like it was any other night.
“They were awakened by the fierce winds, thunder, and waves crashing against their homes. The entire island was overwhelmed by the storm surge, which flooded the French colony of Champ d’Asile by four feet. By morning, the city had become a “picture of chaos”. As water began to invade the hospital, people moved the sick to Maison Rouge (Red House), the residence of the pirate/privateer Jean LaFitte (Gaillardet).
“All but six buildings were reported destroyed on the Island. The pirate Jean LaFitte was occupying Champ d’Asile at the time and played an intriguing role during the storm, as both a Spanish spy and a hero. The Spaniards had paid him to keep an eye on this French town, located in the heart of Spanish territory. His house was used for the sick during the storm, which earned praise from the community. However, he too suffered losses as most of the ships in his fleet were destroyed; four in all. Wreckage from some of these ships was dug up by a dredge boat building portion of the Texas City jetty fifty years later (Block[3]).
“War ships from Vera Cruz who encountered this storm were put out of commission for months. Ships and boats in harbor dragged their anchors and were carried out to sea. Two of the boats were later found in “six leagues inland”. Altogether, fourteen ships were claimed by the hurricane. After the storm, those who had survived fled to New Orleans, bringing an end to the short history of Champ d’Asile (Gallardet). Estimates of the lives lost during the cyclone approach 1000 (Cartwright)[4].” (Roth, David (NWS). Texas Hurricane History. Jan 17, 2010 update, pp. 13-14.)
Seline: “….In 1818, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain (Mexico), which was then fighting for independence from the mother country. The Spaniards had settlements at San Antonio de Béxar, La Bahía del Espíritu Santo (present-day Goliad), and Nacogdoches. The total Hispanic population probably numbered less than 4,000. Texas was primarily inhabited by Native Americans….
“In 1816, French privateer Louis-Michel Aury established a base on Galveston Island, a short distance from the Texas mainland. In April 1817, when Aury left to help Francisco Mina invade Mexico, pirate Jean Laffite took control of the establishment. He ran a privateering, smuggling and slave-laundering operation from the island. A visitor who arrived in January 1818 described Galveston as a “wild sand bar with four or five ‘temporary miserable hovels’ for the 50 men, mostly blacks and mulattoes, living there.”[5] Laffite inhabited a two-story frame house built on a slight elevation.
“In early 1818, Laffite and his men were temporarily joined by approximately 100 Bonapartists – mainly French supporters of Napoleon — on their way to found a colony called Champ d’Asile beside the Trinity River. A few months later, after learning that a Spanish force was coming to eject them, the French colonists returned to Galveston Island to wait for transportation to New Orleans. They arrived in July and settled near Laffite’s village. The Champ d’Asile refugees built a small protective earthwork on a three-foot rise about 400 yards from the water. They were still there when the hurricane struck in September.
“On September 10, 1818, a hurricane passed the Cayman Islands. It blew across the Yucatán Peninsula and then veered north towards Texas. The residents of Galveston Island saw the storm approaching on the evening of September 12, but did not anticipate a hurricane. The French refugees were preparing to go to bed when it struck. [Seline quotes from Le Champ d’Asile au Texas]
The raging winds, the rushing waves shook the earth: the rain fell in torrents, the sky was ablaze; the piles supporting our hut broke: the canvas covering it was torn, and I saw a black column, a whirlwind that carried ravage and destruction in its flanks. The sea flowed in from all sides, the wind lifting the waves. A vortex of wind tore off and removed the remnants of the sail that sheltered us. Night passed and faint light, whitening the horizon, announced that day was soon to appear. Complaints and cries could be heard from all sides when the wind ceased for a moment to roar, and then redoubled its fatal efforts.
Day broke, the storm was not yet calm; but since we could see the danger, it was easier to avoid it. We were able to bring relief to those who were hurt and save them from death. We transported them to the strongest dwelling [Laffite’s], around which we had all gathered.
The island of Galveston, invaded by the sea, seemed to be part of it. This scene of desolation became more terrible when we saw that the waves, redoubling to flee, broke the cables that held our boats and dragged them into the gulf; every means of salvation was taken from us; I dared not announce it, the words died on my lips, and my heart broke. However, the wind subsided, and the sea began to re-enter the gulf.
As we were on a rise, the ground was soon dry, and we were able to sit down. What a sight! We all had pale and drained complexions; our soaked clothing seemed to be glued to the skin and forming part of it; a burning thirst devoured us, and seawater was the only refreshment nature offered us.[6]
“By the time the storm was over, only six buildings remained on Galveston, one of them Laffite’s house. At least four of Laffite’s vessels were sunk or driven ashore. Wrecks from the storm were reportedly found five miles inland in the 1820s. Virtually all of the French refugees’ supplies were lost and the island’s wells were contaminated with salt water. The settlers were dependent on Laffite’s generosity for survival.
“Although there is no good estimate of the number of lives lost in the hurricane, many Karankawa Indians reportedly perished.
The great 1818 hurricane is said to have blown a high flood into Aransas and Copano Bays. It is reported to have drowned many Indians and washed a brigantine or brig to the upper end of a creek (Bergantine Creek) that flows into St. Charles Bay, supposedly indicating that the flood was as high, or higher than, the 1919 flood in that bay. … The normal heights of hurricane floods and their plain weather signs must have been well known to the Indians. The drowning of large numbers of Indians indicates an unexpectedly high flood for a hurricane and probably a wide breach.[7]
(Seline, Shannon. The Texas Hurricane of 1818. (Website). Accessed 7-4-2019.)
Sources
Androbus, Sally. Galveston Bay. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Accessed 7-4-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=8URdra-y_bEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1991. Google digital preview accessed 12-30-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=RFRu8kYThEcC&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=1818%20hurricane&f=false
Roth, David (National Weather Service). Texas Hurricane History. Camp Springs, MD: NWS. 1-17-2010 update. At: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/research/txhur.pdf
Seline, Shannon. The Texas Hurricane of 1818. (Website). Accessed 7-4-2019 at: https://shannonselin.com/2017/09/texas-hurricane-1818/
[1] Sally Antrobus (Galveston Bay, p. 74.) citing Cartwright, writes “Hundreds of bodies lay on the beach…A dozen ships were smashed in the bay…Perhaps half the colonists were lost.”
[2] We use dating of September 12-13. By accounts, the hurricane “hit” the future Galveston the evening of the 12th, and “the storm was not yet calm” at daybreak on the 13th. (See Seline.)
[3] Block, W. T. “Texas Hurricanes of the 19th Century: Killer Storms Devastated Coastline” Beaumont Enterprise 19 Feb 1978, 3.
[4] Cartwright, Gary. Galveston: A History of the Island. Atheneum: New York, 1991.
[5] Cites: William C. Davis. The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf. Orlando: 2005, p. 352.
[6] C. D. Le Champ d’Asile au Texas. Paris: 1820, pp. 103-105.
[7] W. Armstrong Price. North Beach Study for the City of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi, TX; 1956, p. 67.