1903 DELAWARE CAPES STORM DAMAGE.
GREAT DAMAGE AT DELAWARE CAPES
Thursday, 17 September 1903 The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana :
Delaware Breakwater, Delaware, September 16, 1903 :
A storm from the south which has been coming up the Atlantic coast for several days struck the Delaware Capes at 3 am and lasted until 7 pm with winds of 80 mph and torrents of rain, took at least six lives.
The schooner Harrie A. Marsh, befell a most serious wreck in the afternoon yesterday,
and the Captain, J. B. Mehaffey and his four man crew were drowned. The New London schooner from Painters Point, Maine, for Philadelphia with a cargo of paving stone got
caught in a windstorm outside the new stone breakwater, the Captain tying to make the
harbor of refuge found he had to drop anchor and ride out the winds but the anchors did not hold and the schooner with her dead weight of stone washed on the rocks of the harbor of refuge. The steam pilot boat Philadelphia went for rescue but saved only Mate Norman Campbell and one other seaman. The exhausted rescued men were landed at the Lewes Life Saving Station and cared for.
In the harbor three schooners dragged anchor and collided, the, Emilly Northam, Adeline Townsend, and Seabird. The two mast Seabird sank with her crew rescued and
landed on Cape Henlopen at that Life Saving Station and cared for. The Northam, had her
jib boom carried away and her yawl stove. The Townsend lost her headgear and jib boom.
Barges Elmwood, Gilbertson and Kalmia, laden with coal from Philaelphia sank in Delaware
Bay westward of the Brown Shoal. Their crews were rescued by the tug Tamaquash which
had the barges in tow. The tug Spartan towing three barges, Travorton, Hammond and one unknown, sank near Bear Shoal, while at anchor. No records of the tugs crew. Three more
coal barges off Cape Henlopen sank in the ocean and crews missing.
A bark unknown t anchor off Ocean City with distress signal brought the Philadelphia
out to rescue and assist. Another Philadelphia barge, Marcus Hook, was adrift and picked up by tugs and towed to safe anchorage.
Much damage was done to the breakwater, east end light, washed away, the Reporting Station damaged and the telegraph line down all day. Lewes also felt damage, trees uprooted
and chimneys damaged.
Abstract: Thursday 17 September, 1903, Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana.
-
I’m Harrison and this is a blog about ‘local’ history. I research topics through many means but mostly I find local newspaper articles from newspaperabstracts.com. Sometimes they are relative to something that is happening now. Sometimes it is just interesting and worth sharing.
