Civil War Union Brigadier General Torbert
Hurricane Matthew of 2016, brings
to the forefront another hurricane, albeit unnamed.
A hurricane in 1880 hit the same eastern coast of
Florida that affected the Daytona Beach/Halifax
shorelines, our ancestors, and the families whose
members sailed on the Vera Cruz steamship, 136 years
ago.
So in 1880, the Vera Cruz sailed
from Pier number 3 North River, New York, on Wednesday
afternoon, August 15, 1880, with 28 passengers and 49
crew members. The
Vera Cruz was a steamship that was primarily used for
transporting cargo between New York to Havana, Cuba and
to Mexico.
Unbeknownst to the captain and crew, a hurricane was
brewing and just 5 days after setting sail, they would
be shipwrecked, and only 11 of those 77 aboard, would be
alive to tell the story that involved
the assistance
of Henry Lyon Botefuhr to those shipwrecked and
Botefuhr’s property used as a temporary burial site for
Brigadier General Torbert of the Union Army.
There are
discrepancies in the number of lives on board the Vera
Cruz, and hopefully I will be able to clarify that
information later.
Knowing the story of the unnamed
hurricane that capsized the Vera Cruz off the shores of
the Halifax River and then Hurricane Matthew hit the
area of my ancestors, my interest was piqued.
When did the naming of hurricanes begin?
According to most sites, including the Weather
Online and the
National Hurricane Center, West Indies hurricanes
were first named after a particular saint’s day.
In the Catholic religion (General Roman Calendar)
saint’s days were/are celebrated annually, so one could
always know when the hurricanes occurred.
Much later, in 1953, hurricanes formally took on
female names because the meteorological folks felt that
the female names were appropriate for such unpredictable
and dangerous phenomena.
Beginning in 1978, this sexist practice (in my
opinion, and apparently others) was changed and today
the hurricanes carry both male and female names.
Our ancestor, Henry Lyons Botefuhr
was an American born sea captain who was born of German
parents. He
survived a ship wreck on the coast of Africa and then
later fought to claim the remains of his sister-in-law
(and cousin) who was killed after her ship was wrecked
off the Island of Formosa (current day Taiwan).
Captain Henry Lyons Botefuhr had
lived in Swatow, China (now Shantou, China) and
experienced the subtropical climate of temperatures that
averaged 72 degrees.
His family resided in Hoboken, New Jersey where
the temperatures ranged from 23 to 83 degrees and snow
was an occurrence that must have been unbearable after
the balmy winds of China.
So, the adventuresome Botefuhr wanted to find a
climate that was similar in nature to Swatow, China and
began his search that landed him sometime after July of
1870 in the hot, humid, mosquito infested, and wild
shores of the Halifax River and Daytona Beach of
Florida.
THROWN ON
THE BEACH
“When we struck the breakers we
were turned over six times before coming to the surface
and our raft went into fragments.
Not being able to see the land, and not knowing
what this new feature was, we called out a “Goodbye!” as
we drifted apart, and after a terrible ordeal of ten
minutes more were thrown upon the beach, ten miles north
of Mosquito Inlet and opposite to Daytona, Volusia
county, Fla.
At daybreak we met Charles Smith, Second
Assistant Engineer.
He came in about a mile above us.
Soon
after this we saw a house, fronting on the Halifax
River, opposite Daytona.
This proved to be the
home of Mr. Botefuhrs, a character unique as he is kind,
and he has travelled on every continent.
He and his good wife
gave us coffee and smoked fish, and then he and Drumgool
went to the beach to look for General Torbert in
particular and for others in general.
I went also, but my eyes would not permit me to
stay. The
storm was still raging, and the destruction to the
orange trees, houses and property on shore was great.
One woman at Port Orange was dashed to the ground
by the wind and had her shoulder dislocated.
About noon James H. Kelley and Mason Talbot,
seaman, came to the house.
They came in after daylight, about three and four
miles north of us.
We were all much cut, bruised and nearly naked.
At night two corpses were reported, four and six
miles above us.
Charles Smith and I started before sunrise
Tuesday to see these, while Mr. Botifuhr and the others
went south.
The first corpse was that of “Whitehead” (John Kohn), of
the engine room.
He had evidently been killed by a blow on the
back of the head.
From citizens I learned that of General Torbert.
I sent word to have him put in a coffin; and then
I returned to Mr. Botefuhr, and he and I took a boat and
sailed up the Halifax River six miles, to the peninsula
side of New Britain, and there found the remains of
General Torbert under cover.
The coffin was furnished, but was too small,
having been made by guesswork.
Nr. N. W. Pitts discovered General Torbert
floating in the surf, about eight A.M. Monday.
He ran and pulled him ashore, but had to get
assistance before he could get him entirely out of the
water, so that he could have a good rubbing.
The General’s pulse was beating, his body warm
and the blood was running from a wound over his right
eye when found; but an hour’s rubbing failed to restore
animation.
The probability is that Mr. Torbert reached the brakers
in good health but was there struck in the face by the
fragment he was on and stunned, so that he was drowned
before he could again control his actions.
His life preserver kept his head but partly out
of the water.
His clothes were but little torn, he wore his
shoes, his ring was on his finger, and on his chain was
his Masonic badge, but no watch.
In his pants pockets several letters and
dispatches.
Mr. Pitts and his friends did everything in their power
to restore the General to life, failing in which they
showed his remains every mark of respect.
GENERAL
TORBERT’S BODY
The
body was placed in our boat and Mr. Botefuhr and I
passed most of the night against tide and wind, in
regaining Daytona.
It is sad for me to sit
there on that quiet night beside the quieter body.
The General and I had been traveling company most
of his last month on earth.
He was a man of sterling qualities, generous to a
fault, a man of sterling qualities, generous to a fault,
a man one soon learned to trust and to love.
He was confident of weathering through the storm.
I was certain that my end had come.
How strange that he should be there and I here –
that I should live and he be dead.
“Before sunrise, Wednesday,
September 1, under the
palmettoes in Mr. Botefuhr’s garden, we laid
General Torbert in a well dug grave.
Mr. Botefuhr and his
wife, Charles Smith, Thomas Dramgool, Mason
Tolbert, James H. Kelley and I were present.
We buried him in his clothes, sewed securely in a
new double woolen blanket, and put his life preserver
under his head.
It was my wish to bring the body North at once,
but the strict quarantine regulations in the South
during the summer months prevented.
I made arrangements with William Jackson, the
leading merchant of Daytona, to ship the body North in
November, we to send the proper casket to him.”
Boston Globe
1880 0904 (additional)
A severe storm swept over the central portion Florida on the 1st 2nd inst. Post roads were flooded, bridges washed away and mail communication seriously interrupted between Ocala and Tampa, on the west coast of Florida.
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