The Great Galveston Disaster / Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

THE SWIRLING TIDES OF THE GULF.

“If the visitor to Barnegat or even to the Inlet end of the island at Atlantic, will recall how a narrow channel of tidal water reaches back to the sedge fringed bays that extend from Sea Girt to Cape May, and quadruple the width of those interior waters, he will have a fair idea of the position and surroundings of Galveston. Across Galveston Bay the railroads make their approach over eight to fifteen miles of tracks supported by piling.

“The waters of the bay are indeed navigable and through its shallows the moderate tides of the gulf swirl out channels, which the small draft boats of Buffalo Bayou paddle and sail just as the wood and oyster schooners and yachts move up Great Little Egg Harbor Bay on the Jersey coast. In fact, the situation of Galveston is not unlike that of Atlantic City, except that the sandy island on which it is built is lower and its front is to the south instead of to the east.

“Of course there is no well or spring water and the potable supply comes from the house roofs, which are carefully built to gather as much rain as possible, to be stored in cemented cisterns for use. As to the harbor itself for sea-going ships there is, in fact, none. Only the open gulf pushed at this point furthest into the shore, but in a sweep so grand that there are no headlands whatever. The water shoals slowly from the sea and ships of the draft of eighteen feet or more come in to take the first parts of their loads in the shallower water from lighters and move out from time to time until, when down to the load line, they are sometimes six or seven miles from land.

TRYING TO MAKE A HAVEN.

“Great efforts have been made to give Galveston a harbor commensurate with her commercial enterprise, and in some ways success has attended these efforts. Long spurs of breakwater were built out on the principles of the Boca harbor at Buenos Ayres, with a view to enclosing an artificial haven for ships, but the prevalent southerly winds, the currents which they engender and the ceaseless tides have made this work one of great difficulty. A further obstacle has been the shifting, sandy bottom, whose permeable formation reaches down many feet before it rests upon clay or rock.

“The city itself is built chiefly of wood and on the lines of architecture adopted for coolness in tropical climates. That is to say, with vast doorways and windows, cutting out as much of the framework as possible and yet leave enough of support for a roof. This structural form permits the whole house to be opened for the passage of every breeze, but at the cost of stability.

“At intervals and particularly when the spring or high tides prevail, and when the southerly winds bank up the waters of the northern gulf, the streets of the city are flooded, the sewers deliver themselves the wrong way and the uncertain foundations of the city are weakened and prepared for the fall which follows close upon the weather conditions when they are intensified.

THE CITY A PREY TO THE STORM.

“We have now the situation of Galveston fairly before us, and can understand how it easily succumbed to the violence of the late storm. It is true that the cyclone was of a potentiality which might have razed a more firmly built city, but probably in no other city in this country could it have caused such complete devastation.