Hilo tribune., 1905-02-07
TwENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO.
Account Of HilO's Tidal Wave
which Cost Many Lives.

which Cost Many Lives.
Through the courtesy of Sheriff
J. c. Searle, the TRIBUNE is able
to reproduce herewith a vivid
account of the tidal wave, which
deluged Hilo on May 10, 1877,
and resulted in the loss of many
lives and property. The account
is in the form of all official report
of Sheriff Severance addressed to
Marshal w. c. Parke, and is as
follows:
HILo, May II, 1877.
w. c. PARKE, Esq, Marshal.
DEAR SIR: We have had a
great disaster at Hilo. On Thurs
day morning the 10th inst, at
about 4 O'Clock a. m, the sea in
the bay was seen to rise and fall in
all unusual manner, and at S
O'Clock it swept in, in a mighty
wave, washing up and into nearly
all the stores in the front of the
town, carrying off a great deal of
lumber and all the stone wall makai
of the wharf. The perpendicular
height Of the wave Gas we have
since a~scertained by levelling with
the lamp-post on the wharf vas
IL feet 3 inches above the ordinary
low water mark.
But at Waiakea the damage was
frightful; every house within a
hundred yards Of the water was
swept away. The steamboat wharf
and the storehouse, Spencer's
storehouse, the bridge across the
stream, and all the dwelling houses
were swept away in an instant, and
now lie a mass of ruins far inland.
Five lives were lost, and numbers
bruised and had limbs broken. The
body of one woman was found by
the boats off Honolii. The boats of
the American w~haleship Pacific,
Capt. Smithers, lying in the harbor,
picked up six people who were
swimming for their lives in the
Bay. The Pacific was lying in q
fathoms of water, but she grounded
when the sea receded, and then
would be whirled round and round
as the sea came in again. All ex-
pected to see her drag ashore.
The sea continued to rise and
fall all day. l timed one of the
tides in the morning about 7
o'clock, and from its lowest ebb to
its full flood was only about d min
utes. 1t rose about IA feet per-
pendicular height in that time. In
the afternoon in the space of one
hour, the sea % and fell three
times with a height above half tide
Of 7.IoH and 3 feet each time.
Mr.. Roses tin shop was hoated
off its foundations, and is now in
the middle of the street.
The poor people at Waiakea are
in a sad state; houses destroyed
and utterly destitute; their goods
and furniture scattered far and
wide on sea and land. The water
was 3 inches deep III Conway's
store, when the S o'clock wave
came in. The wave at Waiakea
must have had a perpendicular
height of rs feet. to have taken the
bridge and wharf where they now
lie. The water swept completely
over Cocoanut Island, and the hos
pital there has disappeared. The
oil of the bark Pacific, stored in
Spencer's s~torehouse. has been
nearly all found scattered about
among the bushes and trees, a long
ways in shore from the place where
the storehouse stood.
There has been nothing like this
tidal wave since the year 1887,
nearly 40 years ago, when many
grass houses were disappeared.
l have made a careful investiga'
ton of the extent of the disaster,
and find as follows, viz: Thirty
seven dwelling houses entirely de-
, stroyed; seventeen badly injured
five people drowned and killed
seven badly injured; one hundred
and SiXty-three left homeless anC