LEWES
HURRICANE
SEPTEMBER
11, 1889
The
Wilmington Morning News on September 13, 1969, ran an article
which was more than likely written by W. Emerson Wilson,
historian of the time, about an 1868 September 11, hurricane that
hit Lewes and the Delaware Breakwater harbor with much destruction.
Yes, there are
many
written articles covering this storm but this one may shed new data
for those interested in Lewes and it's hurricanes.
The
hurricane, perhaps the worst in previous Delaware history, came in
on Lewes and the Delaware Bay about 2 am Monday, September 11,
1889 and held on until late evening Wednesday September 13th
at full fury,
and
affected the coast from Norfolk to New England.
Lewes Beach and the Capes were strewn with the wreckage of more
than 50 bark, schooners, ships and brigantines. Twelve seamen
lost their
lives
and at least 190 more were saved by the life savings station
surfmen.
In
1889 there were but a few houses and a hotel on Lewes Beach and it
was
known as Hugheyville after the Hughey family. The people living in
this
section were evacuated Monday night as the marsh between Lewes
Creek and the bay was flooded.
A
pilot boat , The Eve Tunnel, with pilots Jake Barns, Lewis
Bertrand, and James Rowland , a guest Harry Hickman, and a crew
of
eight,
which had left Lewes Sunday evening to put a pilot on a ship in the
Atlantic,
did not return Monday and it was feared she may have met the
same
fate as The Enoch Turley which was swept out to sea in an April
storm with the loss of five pilots and five crewmen.
The
Il Salvator for Naples with cargo of petroleum was first lost as it
broke
anchor cables, drifted ashore at the Marine Hospital after crashing
the government pier, that crew was able to safely get ashore with
help of Lewes Life Saving station crew, then one by one, the
schooner Charles Stickney
loaded
with coal, schooner H. M. Clark, with logwood and AlonaOuvert
with
a cargo of sugar.
In
New Jersey the Cape May boardwalk was washed away and the
town evacuated, Atlantic City was cut from the mainland as it's
bridges were washed away. Ocean city, Maryland was under three
feet of water
it's
bridge to the mainland under water and impassable. . Rehoboth lost
it's
boardwalk
and Surf Avenue.
By
Monday night 18 vessels were ashore between Lewes Creek and Cape
Henlopen. There were so many ships in distress that the crews of
the
coastal
life savings stations in Rehoboth , Indian River, had to help Lewes
at
the Breakwater. Schooner E & I Bryant foundered at Brandywine
Shoals
up
bay of Lewes, three crew were saved and five were lost. The
schooner
Walter
Parker lost seven crew as it tried to make the Breakwater. The New
Jersey
pilot boat, Edmunds, was found across the bay north of Lewes.
Sitting
with the tangle of mast and rigging was the three masted Timour,
all
of 11000 tons, was largest ship lost.
Thursday
morning the Eve Tunnel sailed back in to Lewes with all
it's
crew safe and well. They had stayed well out in the ocean, driven
to
Cape
Henry. The Eve Tunnell weathered the storm well and continued
her
long future.
Insurance
company agents were very busy the next six months
settling
claims and it was a long time before the people of Lewes forgot
this
week.
Abstract;
Saturday, September 13, 1969, Wilmington Morning News
by
Harrison H, for www.delmarhistory.blogspot.com
and
Facebook
page Lewes to Ocean City Memories..
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