eBay Tuesday: Hurricane Of '38 Devastation

By now we've had some articles about the , or its . For this week's eBay pick, however, this image of the devastation at the New London waterfront was particularly striking. Most postcards on the site show landmarks or other pleasant site from around the city, but this one, offered by user kingsofsangabrielvalley, portrays a heap boats and debris piled up outside .

The postcard is postmarked from 1938, and the description accurately prophesies that the Sept. 21 storm would long remain part of New England memory. "The loss of lives was appalling; damages mounted to hundreds of millions of dollars and the homeless counted to hundreds of thousands," the description reads. "The tremendous fury of the wind left behind destruction, destitution, and utter ruin."

A woman named Sophia, writing from Maine to her sister in Oakland, offers a rather less stirring opinion: "This looks like something struck alright. Hope you are feeling better."

This same image was on the front page of the Sept. 23, 1938 issue of the Daily Times, a newspaper serving Rochester and Beaver, Pa. The edition tries unwisely to jam two headlines into the top spot, making it seem that the storm is somehow related to Hitler's attempt to take over Czechoslovakia. According to the newspaper, the picture of the waterfront ruin was taken from a passing Eastern Airlines airplane.

The Telegraph, a paper out of Nashua, N.H., chose New London as a site to profile in their Sept. 22, 1938 edition. The article sadly remarks that our city, "picturesque and aloof as a landmark of early America," was dealt a "triple visitation of destruction" by the wind, flood, and an ensuing fire.

The boats in this picture, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were among 11,874 fishing and pleasure vessels damaged or destroyed by the storm. This record also puts the death toll from the storm at 564, with an additional 1,200 injured.

The user describes the postcard as being in very good condition, with light edge and corner wear. The asking price for a starting bid is $8.75, with free shipping from Temple City, Ca. The auction ends tonight at about 10:15 p.m.

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