Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi Hurricane, Sept 1860 - Storm & Fire at Mobile

Storm and Fire At Mobile
Immense Damage to the Shipping
Three Thousand Bales of Cotton Burned
Total Loss $500,000

The severe equinoctial gale which visited this city and vicinity on Saturday, was still more severe at Mobile, and more disastrous to property by far than the great gale of the 13th of August. While at its height, also, two fires broke out, by one of which 3,000 bales of cotton were consumed. The total loss by the storm and the fire is estimated at half a million of dollars. The Register gives the following particulars:
Business throughout the day was entirely suspended. Not a bale of cotton was sold or a single commercial transaction has been effected. In fact our citizens devoted themselves wholly to the laborious work of saving their property; and those whose interests were not imperiled nobly came to the rescue of their less fortunate neighbors.

There was a large arrival of cotton on the wharves and in warehouses, which was seriously damaged by the water.

The steamer Baltic, lying across the river, caught fire about 2 o’clock. The fire was put out by the hands on board, and but little damage was done.

It is rumored and feared that the steamer St. Nicholas, of Messrs. Cox, Brainard & Co., is lost, or seriously damaged. She is said to be blown up on one of the wharves near Hitchcock’s Press.

The steamer John Briggs, owned by Mr. Cox, lying at the Marine Ways, was blown across the river, and is now four hundred yards from the bank of the river. Everything above her boiler deck –chimneys, cabin, etc. – is gone, and nothing except the machinery will be saved, which will cost as much as it is worth to save it. The boat had been recently repaired.

The steamer Waverly, owned by the Messrs. Meahers, was also blown from the Ways across into the marsh, just above One Mile Creek; with her chimneys down and upper works gone. She will probably be gotten off with but little damage.

The steamer Warrior, Capt, H. R. Johnson, lying at one of the upper wharves, lost one of her chimneys; a part of texas, and sustains a damage of about $1,200.
We also learn that the salt barge of Mr. M. Waring, at the foot of Government street, capsized and threw into the river about 4,000 sacks of salt. The loss in the warehouses is said to be about 30,000 sacks.

The walls of the new warehouse on Eslava street, from Royal to Water, are blown down.

The walls of the new theatre, which were injured by the late storm, have sustained no material damage.

The wharves are injured very much. All articles of merchandise on them, at wood at the wood yards, the lumber and saw logs at the mills, have been swept away, and a very serious loss of promiscuous articles has been sustained, the exact amount of which we cannot learn or now approximate.

To add to the horrors of the day, at about 2 o’clock the fire bell rang out a call for the department to subdue a fire on the south side of Government street, just below Royal. Fortunately, however, little or no damage was done.

Again, between 3 and 4 o’clock, the alarm of fire was sounded, and it was soon ascertained that the warehouse of Messrs. Pomeroy & Marshall, in which a large amount of lime was stored, was on fire. Being surrounded on all sides by water to the depth of several feet it was impossible to approach the building, and the fire had to take its course. We also learn that the fire communicated itself to Goodman’s warehouse, in which there was some three thousand bales of cotton, all of which was destroyed. By this time the water had sufficiently receded to enable the fire engines to approach the scene, but the drift and other impediments rendered their labors in a great measure abortive.

Continued