Forgotten Facts

history An Abaco boy’s story

Imet Jack Lowe (1926-2016) when he worked for John S George & Co, Ltd, (on Bay Street, between Bank Lane and East Street), the oldest store in the Bahamas. An Abaconian from Marsh Harbour, he was with JSG for 16 years.

Jack was his parents’ 13th child and, like his siblings, went to school barefooted and learned to write on a slate. He was born two months after the legendary 1926 hurricane that destroyed most of Marsh Harbour, but in his autobiography, “My Life”, he quotes his eldest brother’s eyewitness account of their family’s survival of the storm.

Clerehew ‘Clarie’ Lowe (1903-1993) had come home for a vacation from his job in Nassau, arriving on the day when the morse code operator at the government’s wireless station, Rupert Roberts, received the alert: “Prepare for a hurricane heading your way.”

There were no telephones or radios in Marsh Harbour, but the word spread from person to person, like wildfire.

“My girlfriend, Fanny, worked in Papa’s store, and that Wednesday afternoon when she closed up, she had no inkling that she had worked her last day at T Eldred Lowe’s General Store. The next day, October 21, 1926, the tidal wave knocked down and washed away the entire store.”

Clarie told Jack that the family fell asleep in quietness, that night but were woken by heavy rain and “soon gusts of wind swept over us, banging with intensity anything outside that was moveable.”

“At daybreak, we had breakfast in the separate, adjacent building that housed our kitchen and large dining room. As with most homes, in those times, these rooms were separate from the main house, in case the kitchen caught fire.

“Ten of us sat at the table: Papa, Clarie, Lambert, Isidor, Eric, Emma, Irene, Eulah, Mama and little Josie, in a highchair. ‘Eat heartily,’ Papa encouraged. ‘We may wait a long time before our next meal’.

“During breakfast, the rain stopped, the wind hushed, the silent stillness told us that we were in the eye of the hurricane and Papa cautioned us: ‘The storm is not over. It is moving ahead. In a short time, the winds will shift and come from the opposite direction, from the harbour.’

“We went outside (during the eye) … the swollen sea almost reached the boardwalk … Papa had ushered the younger children into the house, to stay inside with Mama...Papa and (my brother) Lambert entered the shop and lifted 100-lb bags of sugar and flour from the floor and stored them on the counters.

“The wind shifted. From the sea, ominous wailing and whining sounds were nature’s warning to the settlement… shrieks of ripping wind screamed a message of terror: I’m coming to tear you to pieces!”

“Papa and Lambert (brother) rushed to secure the goods in the store, many recently arrived in anticipation of Christmas … then closed the shop door, lifted the iron bar across the door and snapped the padlock – the normal routine. Water sloshed around their lower legs and winds pushed them the 20 steps to our house.

“As Papa and Lambert entered through the back door, the tidal wave came rushing in…they watched as boards from the shop flew past them, into our back yard.

“With window shutters fastened and the front door barred, semi-darkness filled the house… our house creaked and shook, blasted by wind from the north. Many flying objects struck our house. ‘Oh God, please protect and save us,’ Papa pled and Isador (brother) treasured this memory of the only time he heard Papa call out loud to God

PAUL C ARANHA FORGOTTEN FACTS

“The first wave that hit the shore rose about six feet . . . then a solid 20-foot wave smashed inland. Swooped off their foundations, buildings rode the wave that deposited them here and there… Peeking through a window, Rupert Roberts cried ‘The forest trees are sailing past our house.’ Later, he discovered that their house had sailed past the trees, into the forest.

“Eight of the 60 buildings stayed on their foundations: the big government building, the schoolhouse, the homes of Benny Roberts, Austin Lowe, Uncle George Russell, Dr Stratton, Aunt Della and Papa.

In 1926, the population of Marsh Harbour was 327. Three lives were lost. The settlement had to be rebuilt.

THE GOVERNMENT Building in Marsh Harbour housed the library, the post office and the wireless station