Ron van Maanen
Thanks to the fact that nowadays more and more books are digitized we are able to read books that are some times for decades no longer available for the public for several reasons. That’s quite a pity while these books contains useful information while the archives are destroyed, incomplete or nor accessible. This magazine published a letter of a certain W.M.M. who was eye witness during the earthquake at St. Thomas some months after the hurricane.
P. 380: “We arrived at St . Thomas soon enough after the hurricane to be eye-witnesses of the devastation which it had caused. The scene in the harbour was frightful. In every direction masts of vessels appeared above water, standing up, one might almost say, like blades of grass in a field. Pieces of wreck, boats, spars, cases of cargo, and debris in every shape, covered the water in a manner that defies description. Ships of all kinds and sizes were scattered about in all imaginable positions, sometimes in most incongruous situations : one, a large brig, appropriately named the Wild Pigeon, had taken up its station amongst the remains of a grove of trees far above high-water mark. In another part of the harbour, alongside the eastern end of the floating dock (sunk in a gale some four or five months ago), were four ships piled literally one on the other. One, a French brig of some 150 tons, was seen to go down against the dock, and was lying entirely under water, no part of her showing; on her lay a Dutch or Prussian barque of 400 tons, with part of one topmast above water; on her again, the Liverpool and Aspinwall Company’s steamer Columbian, of 2,000 tons; and on top of all, and resting on the last named, though herself half under water, was the huge British Empire, of 3,000 tons -the old Demerara of Bristol fame, and well known in Canterbury come to lay her bones here at last! Every one of these ships is a total wreck, and the British Empire was sold by auction for 65 dollars, or 13 pound sterling. Strange stories are told of the force of the wind; the two following are perfectly authentic. A diving-bell, used in the repair of the floating dock, and weighing nine tons, was lifted up and carried through the air for a quarter of a mile, fortunately doing no damage; and a large rock, a well-known landmark, and weighing fifteen or sixteen tons, was moved bodily from its position, and now lies with a ship's mainsail spread under it like a tablecloth.”
Source
The Month, volume 8, January-June 1868, April 1868.
