Galveston and the Great Storm of 1900 - THE HARBOR

This image, entitled “The Water from the Gulf Destroying Galveston,” is from The Complete Story of the Galveston Horror, Written by the Survivors, edited by John Coulter and published, in 1900, by E. E. Sprague. It appears at page 230 of the book which is online, via Project Gutenberg. Click on the image for a better view.

Thomas Edison (who had invented the phonograph in 1877) also invented a moving-film camera.  Developing his own thoughts - in addition to improving on, or using the work of others - Edison became one of the world's leading inventors.

When the Great Storm of 1900 devastated Galveston, Edison had already formed a moving-picture company.  An employee of that business used a moving-film camera to record scenes of the Galveston disaster.

His waterfront film depicts sailboats, moored in the harbor, torn up like matchsticks.  Still pictures portray the same type of wreckage.

Ships in port, at the time of the storm, were stranded and had to be relaunched. Vessels coming into port after the storm were greeted by piles of rubble and ruined boats.

The harbor, normally a safe haven for mariners, was no better than being at sea. Indeed, Galveston was effectively at sea for much of Saturday evening, September 8th, 1900.

The blackness of the night would have added a level of terror for those who surely must have known they and their families were about to die.