HURRICANE AT ST. THOMAS'S

Southland Times, Issue 905, 24 February 1868, Page 3

HURRICANE AT ST. THOMAS'S

The following extract of a letter received by a lady, residing in Southland from her friend, will be read with intetest : — St. John's Antigua, Nov. 12th, 1867. " A most awful hurricane took place on the very day the mail steamer was to have sailed last month from St. Thomas, and the ocean steamer, the "Rhone," with two of our intercolonial ones went down in the harbor ; over 500 lives lost ; the mails, and in all 70 vessels gone to the bottom. A more appalling event has scarcely ever happened; the poor passengers were scarcely on board, when it commenced, some came even too late, and thus their lives were spared. The " Rhone " attempted to steam out of the harbor into the open sea and was dashed on the rocks. The " Conway " and " "Wye " sank at their moorings, and a large Liverpool steamer, the " Columbia " just gained the harbor, and went down with every soul on board. The storm was confined to the Virgin Islands. The "Douro," the steamer from home, had she arrived a few hours eaalier would hare shared this awful fate. It is supposed to have been a sea-quake, as on shore nearly every stone building is level with the ground. The " Ehone " was moored to the pier, and when the storm began some of the intending passengers went on board for safety, and very shortly all were lost. The Captain, one of the highest on the list, and well known to so many here went down in his ship. I cannot tell you the shock and gloom this has cast over us all. "We knew very well a Mr and Mrs Gibson, who were in the Ehone, just going to England for a change. The hurricane began at II a.m. and by 4 p.m. all was again bright and calm ; it happened on tho 29th of last month. Only a few days before that all public business was suspended, and a day of thanksgiving held, its being as believed, the end of the dreaded hurricane season. Our Bishop and all his family came out in the Douro and as they entered St Thomas's harbour on the following morning, thsy saw the awful sight of bodies floating about, some, even tied to stakes. Already nearly 300 had been buried, but they were then collecting them and burning them to prevent pestilence. The town seemed as though it had been bombarded, and everywhere were to be seen pieces of vessels and clothing in the water. It is dreadful to hear the accounts. Many miles from land the Captain of the " Douro" said. \ " There must have been some terrible accident on board the " Rhone" (as they Baw. some large masts floating on the water.) " I know those masts too well for t l was lor years on of board her ; and only when they arrived, did they hear the awful news, and the first intelligence the Bishop heard was that one of .his nearest relations had been on board and was drowned in the Bteamer. Our little island has been most mercifully spared from hurricanes and terrible earthquakes, which have desolated some of the neighboring ones. St. Thomas is almost destroyed, as well as Tortola, and nearly all have suffered more or less. The " Rhone," as I told you, went down when about to start, with all on board, as well as two smaller steamers, one just arrived. This took place on the 29th of October ; since that, the earthquakes have been incessant. Here we have had

tnany shocks, tat only one very severe ; but none to do any damage. On the afternoon of the 18th of last month the sea rose to a most alarming height. No one could account for it : it was perfectly calm — scarcely a ripple on the water at the time : it rose and rose, until all the streets and floors of stores and warehouses in the lower part of the town were under water ; then it receded, and the harbor was left quite dry, and in some, places small vessels were aground. It continued to rise and fall for some hour^. In the afternoon, before it took place, we had an earthquake ; but, at the very same time, those at St. Thomas' were awful, and at all the islands near. There the sea rose like a wall, and rushed in on the I doomed town, sweeping everything before it. The "La Plata," the great ocean steamer, lying in twenty-two feet of water, was left dry at one moment, and by the providence of God was preserved from being dashed against the rocks. At Granada, an island far to the south, an extinct volcano in the harbor burst out like a water-spout, and the sea dashed up over the town and island, causing the greatest alarm, and then receding. At St. Thomas' many lives were lost in the hurricane previously. Above 700 bodies were washed ashore, and burned, as there were no means of burying them.