$2 Florida Keys Sea Heritage Journal VOL. 20 NO. 4 SUMMER 2010 USS SHARK OFFICIAL QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF THE KEY WEST MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY Understanding the Key West Hurricane of 1846 By Corey Malcom ©Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society, 2010 Introduction Key West is no stranger to hurricanes. Located near the heart of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane zone, the small, low-lying speck of land, situated along the northern edge of the Florida Straits, is frequently visited by tropical weather systems. These large cyclonic storms are simply a part of the island’s natural weather-pattern. Hurricanes have been known in the Florida Keys for centuries. The Memorable [Havana] Hurricane of October 11, 1846. Mapa Historico Colonial shipping interests were Pintoresco Moderno de la Isla de Cuba, Hamburg: 1853. Photo credit: Murray Hudson Maps. especially vulnerable to them, and tales of maritime disaster account or hurricanes have come within 50 fleet of military vessels stationed in for much of what we know about nautical miles (57.5 statute miles) the port to flee, and it left at least 12 early storms in the Keys. In 1622, of Key West (NOAA, 2010). Based other vessels wrecked along the reef a hurricane that passed just to the on these figures, Key West has just (Anonymous, 1827 a; Anonymous, west of Key West wreaked havoc over a 38% chance of a significant 1827 b). Eight years later, in 1835, on the 1622 Tierra Firme fleet, tropical weather system passing another hurricane moved westward sinking eight of 28 vessels (Lyon, quite closely in any given year. along the islands, striking the Upper 1989). In 1733, the Spanish fleet Modern Key West was first settled Keys on the 15th of September, from Mexico was destroyed by a in 1822, after it became a remote and then Key West on the 16th, but hurricane that struck as they passed island outpost of the United States, most of its damage was to shipping the middle and upper Florida Keys and its earliest days as a fledgling interests along the northern part (Smith, 1997). In more recent years, community were not except from of the island chain (Anonymous, as weather data collection was the effects of hurricanes. The 1835). systematized, the frequency of these earliest documented hurricane to On September 5th, 1842, after tropical weather systems has been strike the island town happened in having first hit Havana the day more accurately measured. Between September of 1827. The storm was 1852 and 2009, sixty tropical storms strong enough to force the small (Continued on page 3) (Hurricane from page 1) October of 1846. The Eyewitnesses before, another storm struck quite The first-hand accounts of the close to Key West (Anonymous, 1846 storm certainly support the 1842 a). Damage was extensive legends of its power. There were at Sand Key, on the reef seven a number of witnesses, both on miles south of Key West, where land and at sea, who recorded the lighthouse keeper’s quarters their observations of the horrifying were completely destroyed. Many weather. These eyewitnesses to ships in the area were damaged too, the storm describe wind, flooding, and a wrecking vessel with a crew suffering, and damages that are of thirteen went missing, its crew unparalleled in modern Key presumably drowned. But on Key West memory, and the following West proper, the storm’s impact examination of the storm draws The Florida Keys Sea Heritage was apparently more moderate. A heavily from these accounts. Journal is published quarterly. writer from the island said, “…the These witnesses saw the events Subscription is available through damage on this key is trifling, some unfold from a variety of perspectives, membership. Copyright 2010 by old buildings have been destroyed and they wrote of the storm for the Key West Maritime Historical and fences blown over; nothing like different reasons. An anonymous Society of the Florida Keys, Inc. it has been felt here for the last 20 Key West resident submitted a long The art on the masthead, the USS years, so say our oldest inhabitants.” and especially rich description of the Shark, was drawn by Bill Muir. (Anonymous, 1842 b). hurricane and its effects to the New But things got worse two years York Herald (Anonymous, 1846 a). th Editor: Tom Hambright later. On October 5 of 1844, a Captain George Dutton of the U.S. hurricane struck the island directly, Army, in charge of the construction and it was much stronger than any of recently commissioned Fort Letters and articles are welcome. felt before. This storm also hit Taylor, wrote a letter to his superior Please write to: Editor, Florida Keys Havana first, then wreaked havoc Colonel J.G. Totten explaining post- Sea Heritage Journal, KWMHS, P.O. at Sand Key and damaged the hurricane status of the fort-building Box 695, Key West, FL 33041. lighthouse there, before coming project (Dutton, 1846). Long-time ashore at Key West. Many ships in Key West resident and collector of Key West Maritime the harbor were sunk or damaged. Historical Society customs Stephen Mallory wrote to Board of Directors The Revenue Cutter Vigilant and the Secretary of the Treasury Robert crew went missing in the storm, J. Walker to notify him of the President: Edward J.Little,Jr. never to be seen again. A writer storm and its effects on the island Vice President: Bill Verge from Key West declared, “The (Mallory, 1846). Commodore John Secretary: Corey Malcom unequal fury of the gale, when D. Sloat of the U.S. Navy notified Treasurer: Tom Hambright at its height, can scarcely be the Secretary of the Navy, John conceived! It swept everything Y. Mason, about his experiences Andrea Comstock before it – houses, fences, trees, aboard the brig Perry, and he also George Craig vessels, and almost everything in described the devastation suffered Bill Grosscup its course was leveled to the earth at Key West (Sloat, 1846). Another, Tom Hambright or borne off with frightful velocity” unnamed member of the Perry’s Mary Haffenreffer John Jones (Anonymous, 1844). But as bad as crew wrote his recollections of his the 1844 hurricane might have been, Sheri Lohr experience onboard the brig as it Don Lowe there was much worse to come: was driven back and forth across Louis Maglio What is thought to be the strongest the Florida Straits between Cuba Julie McEnroe hurricane known to have struck the Bill Verge island came just two years later, in (Continued on page 2) John Viele New Member William and Louis Bienlier, Tawas Jay Johnson and Jill Wolfe, Key City, MI; Joan Bollinger, Key West; West. 2 - FLORIDA KEYS SEA HERITAGE JOURNAL - SUMMER 2010 (Hurricane from page 2) and the Florida Keys (Anonymous, 1848). Lieutenant William C. Pease, aboard the U.S. Revenue Cutter Morris, documented his harrowing experiences onboard ship in the Key West Harbor. (Pease, 1846). Another detailed story of the storm and its effects at Key West was published in the New Orleans Daily Picayune (Anonymous, 1846 b). By compiling information from the various perspectives of these eyewitness accounts and other primary observations, an accurate reconstruction of the storm’s fury is possible. All of the eyewitnesses provide a timeline of sorts for how the storm unfolded and progressed. The descriptions of these various eyewitness observers can be looked Tract of the 1846 Hurricane. Photo credit: the Author. at for evidence about the effects of the storm and the sorts of damage it caused. Each man had a different the communities of Savannah and lost, but bodies were seen floating vantage point and saw the hurricane Newlands (Piddington, 1848). in the harbor, in the different dresses unfold slightly differently, but By the 10th of October the of seamen in the merchant and naval they all describe strikingly similar hurricane was at Cuba, striking services,” said a witness to the next circumstances both during and somewhere on the southwestern day’s aftermath (ibid.). after the storm. The words of these shore; by evening, Havana was The Storm Arrives at Key West witnesses give a good sense of the feeling its effects. As the storm Roughly 100 miles to the worst that a hurricane has to offer. raged across the city and through north, at nearly the same time, the The 1846 Storm the night, ships were dashed to island of Key West was beginning On the 5th of October, 1846, the pieces, buildings fell, and scores of to feel the storm’s effects. The barque Cora, at sea in the Caribbean people died. Over 150 vessels were anonymous writer for the New York off the Venezuelan coast near lost in Havana Harbor, destroyed by Herald was the first to document Maracaibo, was the first to notice the indications of the storm’s waves so large they sent water as th the beginnings of the hurricane high as the lanterns of the lighthouse approach. “On the 10 [of October] (Redfield, 1846). From there, the of the Moro Castle. By 11 A.M. on the barometer gave evidences of storm traveled northwestward and October 11th, the hurricane’s fury change, and by comparing it with strengthened as it progressed. It had passed, but the devastation the sympiesometer, I was satisfied passed south of Jamaica, where the left in its wake was extreme. “In that there were elements in motion, resulting sea swell caused problems the city and environs, the injury to which would soon be earnestly at along the eastern end of the island the buildings, trees, &c., has been work,” he wrote. At 3 A.M., the same (Schomburgk, 1848). The hurricane immense and many lives have been reporter went to the harborfront and maintained its course, and it soon lost,” wrote a reporter from Havana noted that the seas were increasing reached the Cayman Islands, where (Anonymous, 1846 c).