1837 – Aug 6, hurricane, St. Augustine-Charleston schnr. S.S. Mills sinks off Jekyll Island, GA– 14

–all 15 Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. P.23.
— 14 Georgia Messenger, Macon. “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.” 8-17-1837, p. 2.
— 14 Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. 1963, p. 126.

Narrative Information

Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten: “1837 Aug. 16-Sept 1 (1) …Charleston-to-St. Augustine packet SS Miller sank with 15 aboard off Jekyl [sic.] Island, Georgia; Georgetown lashed by gale-force winds, 9-foot storm surge.” (Jordan, Dukes, and Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. Undated, p.23.)

Ludlum: “1837 – No. 3 – Antigua-Florida

“The Leeward Islands were ravaged by a second, even more intense hurricane on 2 August…It struck Antigua about 0230 in the morning…The Virgin Islands were reached late in the afternoon. The tempest struck savagely at Puerto Rico where it has since been known as ‘Los Angeles’ and has been rated as one of the seven most destructive to hit that island in the period 1825 to 1928….

“The disturbance reached the Bahama Islands on the 4th and 5th where it caused more damage than the first Barbados storm had….

“St. Augustine, already buffeted by Hurricane No. 2, lay close to the projected path of the next….

“At Jacksonville press reports told of a severe gale on the 6th with winds varying from northeast to southeast as the storm approached. Two government warehouses were blown down there, and the cotton crop destroyed at coastal points.

“The eye of this great disturbance appeared to have come ashore south of Caper Fernandina, the most northeastern point of Florida, where the St. Marys River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. At the town of Old St. Marys, on the northern or Georgian shore of the tidal estuary of that name, a severe inundation took place such as can occur only with an easterly wind flow. The streets of the village were knee-deep with water and the areas along the bay were waist-deep….Out on the coast at Cape Fernandina, nineteen houses were blown down. A letter from St. Marys summarized: ‘the gale of the 6th was as severe as that in 1813, and had done as much injury to the place.’

“A dispatch from coastal Georgia described the local effects of the storm there:

Darien, August 10. – During the last week we have been visited by a storm which has not been equaled since that of the year 1824. The wind on Sunday last, in the morning, blew fresh from the northeast; in the after part of the day, it shifted around to southeast, when the rain began to fall in heavy torrents. The wind then rose very high, and began to blow with fearful violence, tearing up the oldest oaks and mulberry trees in the place by the roots, while limbs and branches of the different trees were flying in all directions. The water of the river then rose, and covered the rice plantations so completely, that they appeared to the eye to form part of the river. The rice, there is no doubt, will be greatly injured by the salt with which the water is impregnated.

“Northward at St. Simon Island the wind commenced blowing at noon of the 6th from the northeast, but between 1500 and 1700 shifted into the southeast ‘and became one of the most furious hurricanes we have had since 1824.’ The blasts continued until very early on the morning of the 7th when the storm suddenly ceased.

“Savannah, too, lay within the circle of maximum destruction from wind and tide. ‘Our city has suffered in the prostration of trees and fences. The tide yesterday was over our wharves, and no doubt those who had planted on low lands on the river have suffered materially.’ Another account took a doleful vies: ‘All the goods in front of the stores are damaged, and many of the vessels in the harbor, after having dragged miles up the river, are left high and dry on the marsh…I suppose that destruction by the hurricane in this part of the country was never before so universal…it is my opinion that we shall scarcely recover in five years.’

“A tragedy occurred off Jekyl Island during the gale when the Charleston-to-St. Augustine Packet S. S. Mills upset with the loss of 14 of the 15 persons aboard. Amongst them were some of the leading citizens of the Florida city. Lack of ballast in the high winds was given as the cause of the disaster. ”

Newspaper

Aug 9: “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.
“A sailor by the name of Abraham Cote, who says that he is, as he believes, the only survivor of the St. Augustine packet schooner S. S. Mills of 30 tons burden, bound to Charleston, and upset off Jekyl Island, in 7 fathom water, and all perished but himself. This melancholy disaster occurred during the gale on Sunday the 6th instant, about 11 o’clock in the morning. There were on board, 15 in all, among them were one white woman and two blacks all drowned, in the cabin. – Mr. Cote reached the middle of Jekyl Island about an hour after sunset, on a spar. The last he saw of the wreck, it was bottom up, and the Captain, Mate, and two black seamen were on her bottom, and two other men in the boat which was full of water. Soon after the boat passed by him with nobody in it. There was a schooner in sight when she upset, and run down upon her, but as he believes saved none of the crew. They were, like himself, floating about, that is those not already drowned. It was too rough to keep a boat on top of the waves. He remained on Jeklyl Island all night not knowing that the Island was inhabited, and seeing the Light House, he came to the north end of it, and finding a plank, launched himself up on the sound, and with a paddle he found on the bank paddled himself across, taking the last of the flood tide, and landed near Mr. King’s.

“Several fragments of the wreck has come ashore along the beach, together with the fore-mast broke below the cap. The schooner was in ballast two days from St. Augustine, and commanded by Capt. Pellman.

“The poor fellow came ashore naked, having torn his clothes off whilst afloat, that the surges might not have so much hold of him. T. H. King Esq. and his overseer, Mr. Redding, clothed him and treated him with great kindness.

“We learn that one of the passengers was a Clergyman from Charleston.

“The crops have suffered much by the late gale; that with the severe drought, will make our crops short.” (Georgia Messenger, Macon. “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.” 8-17-1837, p. 2.)

Sources

Georgia Messenger, Macon “St. Simons Aug. 9, 1837.” 8-17-1837, p. 2. Accessed 8-18-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/macon-georgia-messenger-aug-17-1837-p-2/

Jordan, Laylon Wayne, with Robert Dukes, Jr. and Ted Rosengarten. A History of Storms on the South Carolina Coast. Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium. Undated. Accessed 8-16-2022 at: https://www.scseagrant.org/wp-content/uploads/South-Carolina-Hurricane-History-1980.pdf

Ludlum, David M. Early American Hurricanes 1492-1870. Boston, MA: American Meteorological Society, 1963. Accessed 8-18-2022 at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002912718&view=1up&seq=6&q1=1822