Jim Bradshaw: The hurricane that swallowed an island in the Gulf

The tale of what happened on Sunday, Aug. 10, 1856, to Last Island, the little barrier off the Terrebonne Parish coast, has been told and retold many times.
It is succinctly summarized in an introduction to Lafcadio Hearn’s novel, "Chita," a romanticized story about those events that was first published in 1888.
"In 1856, the Gulf of Mexico reared up and devoured (Last Island) pretty much whole, with most of its inhabitants and wealthy vacationers. There were a few survivors. …
"But nearly all who saw the water rise up through the floor of the island’s grand hotel did not live to see the water recede.”
Less well known are the harrowing stories of boats that were caught at sea by that terrific hurricane.
Two of them were the steamship Nautilus and the sailing ship Manila.
The New Orleans Picayune learned the fate of the Nautilus when Jim Frisbee, its steward, was picked up at sea, barely alive, after spending eight days clinging to a piece of wreckage.
He said the boat was racing toward the relative safety of the Mississippi River, and was just 30 miles from Southwest Pass when it was hit by a big wave and capsized.
According to the Picayune, Frisbee “found himself on a portion of the deck” and saw the captain and some other survivors trying to hold on to the bottom of the overturned boat.
“The next sea washed them off … [and] he saw some of them afterwards on pieces of the cabin, floating, but soon lost sight of them,” according to that account.
He was able to join up with the first engineer, a man named Johnson, “and clung to the same piece with him” for five days, until Johnson, delirious, jumped into the water and drowned.
The crew of a naval ship searched the area hoping to find survivors but there were none.
“From all that was learned,” the Picayune reported, “it is probably too true that the steward, Jim Frisbee, is the only survivor.”
The “large ship” Manila was wrecked off Timbalier Island with 29 people aboard.
A fishing boat carrying survivors who made it onto the island brought word of its fate.
Among those brought to the city were its captain, named Rogers, the first mate Bernard Rains, pilot John McLaughlin, nine seamen, and three passengers.
All of them, the Picayune said, “bareheaded, barefooted, ragged and weak.”
The Manila had in fact made it to Southwest Pass before the storm struck, but, according to the captain, even using two towboats he could not get his big, heavily laden ship over the sand bar that blocked the river’s entrance.
“He therefore backed into deep water, and let down both anchors,” the account went on. But then, with “the gale still increasing, he saw no hopes of holding on.”
He cut the anchor cables, “made all possible sail on the ship,” and tried to outrun the storm.
That didn’t work. All of the sails were blown away and the ship was adrift when a huge wave crashed over it, leaving it leaking badly. The ship went to pieces three hours later. Five of the crew and five passengers were lost.
According to the Picayune, “The suffering of those who escaped to the island was very great, as they were on Timbalier Island five days without provisions or water. …
"They saved noting in the way of clothing, but what they had on at the time of the wreck.”
McLaughlin said much of the ship’s cargo was scattered for about two miles up and down the Timbalier Island beach, and that he thought about two-thirds of it could be saved.
He was right about that, but wrong about who would salvage it. The Houma Ceres told that story several weeks after the wreck.
The Manila had sailed from Bordeaux, France, loaded with “a large and valuable cargo” of wines and liquors, and “large quantities of this freight came ashore on Timbalier, Calliou, and Brush Islands,” the Houma paper reported.
“Many of our friends who were sojourning there had the good fortune to secure great quantities. We are informed that one party on Brush Island has possession of over six hundred casks of wine.”
None of the “friends” were named.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.