From the July 14, 1959 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Mainland newspapers glibly spoke of “baby hurricanes” but old-timers of the Vineyard would have called Friday night’s storm, or rather, that of early Saturday morning, “a williwaw.”

Whatever it might be tagged, it blew, gusty and strong, with gusts reported up to forty miles, possibly stronger, and torrents of rain. It was from the hurricane direction too, southeast, and kicked up a sea in surrounding waters. Damage, however, was comparatively light.

Tree-limbs thrashing about disrupted electric service briefly on Music street, West Tisbury, and a fallen tree on North Water street, Edgartown, affected electric service on Simpson’s Lane. About twenty telephone lines were knocked out for a time, chiefly because of water. Some small boats filled with rain, and at least two parted their moorings, this in Vineyard Haven, and drove ashore, but they were floated

The behavior of the storm was peculiar, as is true of all williwaws. Though the weight of the wind was from southeast, it was shifty, and before it had actually blown itself out, it had literally “boxed the compass” twice, settling, finally, in the southwest. But before that occurred, an “eye” had apparently passed over and the wind had breezed heavily from the northwest for a brief space.

The height of the waves along the seawall in Oak Bluffs was evidenced by the experience of a driver for the cooperative dairy, who set out on his rounds around 4 a.m. and reported that the sea was breaking so far above the wall that it completely inundated his truck.

Series damage in Edgartown was limited — at least as far as those people who were callous to the fate of the multitudes of full-blown roses were concerned — to two trees, one of which was partially destroyed and one of which was toppled over carrying with it an ancient boxwood.

The partially destroyed tree was a huge ailanthus, or tree of heaven, on North Water street just opposite the intersection of Simpson’s lane. The whole top half of the tree plummeted into the street and part of the branches got caught in the power lines. Cape & Vineyard repairmen worked several hours Saturday morning removing branches and restoring service to that part of town. The tree warden and his crew had removed the obstructions from the street somewhat earlier.

A coffee-bean tree, felled in one of the hurricanes but quickly righted, toppled over on the property of Miss Louise Meikleham on South Water street. The tree, growing in a kind of narrow wedge created by a steep embankment on one side and Miss Meikleham’s garden house on the other, fell into the wedge, scraping some of the shingles of the building along the way. But the most serious result was that the tree’s roots — which were entangled with the roots of a tremendous boxwood bush, one of several bordering a formal garden — uprooted the bush too. Although Miss Meikleham was quick to swath the roots of the boxwood in damp cloths, and subsequent rains have kept it moist, its survival was still questioned yesterday afternoon.

Thanks to all-night vigils on the part of many people, damage in Edgartown harbor was held to a minimum. Skippers of most of the larger vessels moored in the harbor kept their motors running all night and held their craft facing into the storm. Personnel of Norton & Easterbrooks were up much of the night, seeing to safety of the smaller boats tied up at nearby docks. Philip B. Norton reported that only one was

Mr. Norton said that several other vessels came close to being swamped but were pumped out in time. “It was quite sloppy around here, but everything was under control,” he observed.

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A heroine of Friday night’s big blow and downpour is a valiant soul little bigger than a bumblebee, whose home is somewhat larger than a walnut. In other words, she is a humming bird.

This tiny creature sat out the storm in a pear tree outside the window of the Chilmark house occupied by the Samuel Blackwell Jones family, and she was still at her post when Mrs. Jones, who contributes poems to the Gazette under the name, Barbara Chipman Jones, telephoned on Saturday. One can but hope that the showers of the following seventy-two hours did not overwhelm her on her dwelling place. Pear leaves are not the biggest and best arboreal bulwarks against continuing rains.

Her hostess, Mrs. Jones, says that she was in fine fettle the afternoon before the storm, evidenced by the fact that she engaged in a violent battle with some interloper within her range of operations. Naturally, the hummer won out, for her soul is intrepid to a degree belying her size.

Now it can be told, as all indications are that the utterly impossible weather is at an end. Here is the rainfall score, amounting to 4.62 inches from Friday on, as registered by the government rain gauge.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox
library@vineyardgazette.com