Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1888-12-07
A DISASTROUS STORM.
Death and Devastation Along
the Atlantic Coast.
Numerous Lives Lost and Much
Valuable Property Destroyed.

ity of New York equal in force and de
structiveness to that which began early the
other morning and ragged along the Atlantic
coast
The wind was blowing nearly forty miles
an hour over the sea wall of the Battery at
New York, and hurricane ragged at Sandy
Hook, which had been cut off from tele-
| graphic communication. At Block Island
there was a wind velocity of eighty miles,
higher than that during the blizzard, and at
| ten o'clock A. NJ. a northeast hurricane was
blowing into Boston at the rate of sixty
! miles.
The edge of the storm swept over the At
| lantic States. 1t was circular in form, with
| its centre only couple of hundred miles off
| Sandy Hook, and the Signal Service pre-
| dicted that it would blow off to the north
| east before tomorrow morning. From all over
the country come reports of low temperature
was in New York City, where it regis
! tered % degrees at ten o'clock At AL
bany, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing
| ton it was below the freezing point, and
! by the storm there were high winds, mixed
! with rain and sleet. Jacksonville with 90
| degrees, showed the lowest register since the
! yellow fever epidemic began. and frost is
| looked for there in the immediate future.
The storm ragged with great fury over
Long Island especially on the eastern end.
A large number of telegraph poles were
blown down and Geographic COM
with The wind and heavy seas COM
blned broke down the end of the
enbankment at Shinnecock Canal, opening it
through from Peconic Bay to Shinnecock
Bay, and washing out all the roads leading
over the hills. Sag Harbor reported that a
large number of fishing smacks and small
craft were blown from their anchorage and
driven ashore
At Manhattan Beach the breakers were
tremendous, the esplanade along the front of
the Manhattan Beach Company's property,
a ga
thrown high in the air and totally destroyed.
Immediately afterWard the depot at the west
end Of the Marine Railroad was swept out to
sea bodily, and few minutes later fully
One-third of the track of the road was also
carried away.
Superintendent Mott of the Manhattan
Beach Company says that the sea has not
run SO high since 1878. The damage will not
fall far short of 900.
At Far ROckaway tremendous seas washed
over Hog Island Bar and threatened great
destruction. Bath houses, out buildings, to-
gether with hundreds of feet of plank walk
have been washed out to sea. Ten thousand
dollars will not cover the damage done
At Rockaway Beach, Jones Beach and
Fire Island the waves swept away bathing
houses, platforms and other small structures
and many small craft were either beached or
carried out to sea.
For twenty miles along the Hudson River
from Yonkers the wind had clean sweep
and the storm got in its work merrily The
steamer Saratoga had to put into her dock at
Workers. and the James w. Baldwin was
turned back.
The propeller Terrace Garden was blown
from her moorings and fOundered below |
YOnkerS. Several canal boats were blown |
adrift above Yonkers, but were saved from |
laundering.
At spots along the New York Central Rail-
road trains had to be run at slow speed to |
prevent being blown into the river At CITY !
Island a fleet Of fifty or more vessels was |
detained by the furious gale. In Westchester
County many trees and outhouses were de-
mOliShed.
The storm was most disastrous in its effects !
ali along the New England coast and terrible |
loss of life is reported. The northeast gale
came on so suddenly that it was impossible
for vessels to seek shelter. Many total
wrecks have occurred and number of YES
sells are stranded and very badly damaged.
1t has been much more destructive along
the coast than was the blizzard, and the
damage to telegraph and telephone lines is
almost as great. Wrecks were reported by
almost every life saving station, and con-
siderable loss of life was reported. But
meager reports were received, as fifty per
cent of the telegraph wires were down
The storm found Massachusetts Bay dotted
with vessels, and swept them from the face of
the ocean like so much chaff. Many lives
have been losS, and more than score of
vessels wrecked near the entrance to
Boston Harbor. Such a wholesale destruc-
ton of shipping has not been known in the
memory of old salts The sea was awful in
its wildness, especially along the south shore,
where the coast was exposed to the full
sweep of the gale.
Although the loss of life already reported
is large it would have been still greater but
for the brave efforts of Captain Joshua James
and his volunteer life-saving crew of Hull
Mass, who are credited with saving twenty
eight persons from various disabled vessels.
The fishing schooner Edward Morton
owned by Stubs & Co., T wharf Boston,
went ashore in the gale at Scituate, Mass,
and is total wreck. OF her crew of sixteen
men all were washed overheard and drowned
save one, a seaman named Allen of Boston
on the beach Allen was found in an uncon-
Scious condition under the wreck by
the life saving crew and resuscitated.
AS near as he could tell, they struck be-
tween five and six o'clock and almost imme-
diately capsiZed. He was down below and
was the only one saved. He saws she carried
fifteen men and boy.
The schooner Avalon Mulberry from ST.
] ohm, New Brunswick, for New York with
a cargo of $40, 600 laths, consigned to Scam
nell Brothers, went ashore on Spectacle ISL
and in Boston Harbor. Three Of the crew
we're swept overheard in the gale and
drowned. There were probably 100 vessels
wrecked on the New England coast
The schooner b. +. Walker, WeStgate, of
Fall River, from Philadelphia, for Boston,
was wrecked on Teddy Rocks, near Hull. ,
Mass. Her cabin and forward houses have ,
washed away. Captain Westgate and Mate
;. NJ. Thomas were lost ,
The Alice, from Boston for Shelburne and
Dockport with general cargo OF provisions,
vent down near Hull, Mass. The two crews
If ten men, lost everything and were in q
desperate condition.
The beach in the neighborhood of Nor :
mans Woe, Mass, is strewn with wreckage, :
consisting Of lumber, laths, barrels etc