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In studying the historical record of by-gone days, scholars often
come across men and women whose deeds are long forgotten by the
nation they once served. Such is the case of Charles S. Root, one of
the bravest and most accomplished engineering officers in Coast
Guard history, who distinguished himself early in his career as a
heroic lifesaver.
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U.S. Coast Guard courtesy image with Capt. Charles S. Root; the Revenue Cutter Galveston;
the Galveston, TX waterfront after being hit by the devastating
hurricane in 1900; and, the Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal.
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In late August 1900, a tropical depression emerged in the
Atlantic and formed into a tropical storm before passing
over Cuba and drenching the island with two feet of rain.
The National Weather Bureau had few of the technological
advances available today and was unaware of the storm's
passage into the Gulf of Mexico, where it quickly grew into
a Category 4 hurricane. This super-hurricane took Galveston
by surprise because its initial winds blew from the north
mixed with light rain. By late morning on Saturday,
September 8, these winds grew in strength pushing water in
Galveston Bay south against Galveston Island. At the same
time, on the opposite side of Galveston Island, the north
wind pushed back the hurricane's tidal surge pent up in the
Gulf.
Down on the Galveston waterfront, U.S. Revenue Cutter Galveston
docked at a wharf near the city's immense Elevator A, considered one
of the world's largest grain elevators. The steam-powered Galveston
measured 190-feet long and carried a crew of 32 officers and men.
The cutter enforced customs and quarantine laws, conducted rescue
operations, and carried out other Service missions. On board the
cutter, Capt. Charles Brian watched the barometer for signs that a
storm was on its way. He also ordered dock lines tightened, chains
added to the ship's hawsers and additional anchors set to secure his
mooring.
At around 2:00 p.m., the storm closed in on South
Texas. The wind exceeded 50 mph and changed direction from north to
northeast, releasing the Gulf storm surge that was building offshore
for hours. By the time residents realized the grim circumstances
facing them, seawater had flooded the streets and wind speeds
reached gale force. At this juncture, approximately 50 residents
sought refuge aboard Galveston to ride out the storm.
By
mid-afternoon, the surge had inundated lower portions of Galveston
to a depth of 5 feet. For many in the city's flooded East Side there
was nowhere to turn and, by 3:30 p.m., reports of death and
destruction began to reach the cutter. Brian decided to deploy a
small boat to aid storm victims and assistant engineer Root
volunteered to lead the rescue party. A call for volunteers went out
to the ship's crew and eight enlisted men stepped forward to
accompany Root.
Within half-an-hour of volunteering, Root and
his men deployed, performing a mission more common to Lifesaving
Service surfmen than to cuttermen. The small group overhauled their
whaleboat, dragged it over nearby railroad tracks and launched it
into the overflowing streets. The winds blew oars into the air, so
the men warped the boat through the city using a rope system. One of
the rescuers would swim up the streets with a line, tie it to a
fixed object and the boat crew would haul-in the line. Using this
primitive process, Galveston's boat crew rescued numerous victims
out of the roiling waters of Galveston's streets.
At around
6:15 p.m., the Galveston Weather Bureau anemometer registered over
100 mph, before a gust tore the wind gauge off the building. Later,
Weather Bureau officials estimated that at around 7:00 p.m., the
sustained wind speed had increased to 120 mph. By this time,
assistant engineer Root and his rescue party returned to the
Galveston having filled their whaleboat with over a dozen storm
survivors. By this time, even the cutter's survival seemed doubtful,
with demolishing winds stripping away rigging and prying loose the
ship's launch. Meanwhile, wind-driven projectiles shattered the
cutter's windows and skylights in the pilothouse, deckhouse and
engine room covers.
Not long after Root returned to the
cutter, Weather Bureau officials recorded an instantaneous flood
surge of 4 feet. Experts estimate that the sustained wind speed
peaked at 150 mph and gusts up to 200. The howling wind sent grown
men sailing through the air and pushed horses to the ground. The
barometric pressure dropped lower than 28.50 inches, a record low up
to that date. By then, the storm surge topped 15 feet above sea
level. The high water elevated the Galveston so high that she
floated over her own dock pilings. Fortunately, the piling tops only
bent the cutter's hull plates but failed to puncture them.
Within an hour of returning to the cutter, at the height of the
storm, Root chose to lead a second rescue party into the flooded
streets. Darkness had engulfed the city and he called again for
volunteers. The same men from the first crew volunteered the second
time. The wind still made the use of oars impossible, so the crew
warped the boat from pillar to post. As the men waded and swam
through the city streets, buildings toppled around them and howling
winds filled the air with sharp slate roof tiles. But the boat crew
managed to rescue another 21 people. Root's men housed these victims
in a structurally sound two-story building and found food for them
in an abandoned store. The cuttermen then moored the boat in the lee
of a building and took shelter from flying debris and deadly
missiles propelled by the wind.
By 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, the
wind began to moderate allowing Root to return to the cutter with
every member of his crew safe but exhausted. The next morning,
Galveston's carpenter and members of the crew set to rebuilding
exposed parts of the cutter. They patched holes in the small boats,
mended the ship's broken rigging, and replaced windows and skylights
shattered by wind-blown debris.
With approximately 8,000
killed in Galveston and, as many as 4,000 more lost along the Gulf
Coast, the Great Galveston Hurricane proved the worst humanitarian
disaster in U.S. history. The storm's death toll was greater than
the combined casualty figures of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack,
Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 terrorist attacks as well as Hurricane
Ike, which struck Galveston in 2008. The Treasury Department awarded
Root the prestigious Gold Lifesaving Medal, with a second Gold
Lifesaving Medal and seven Silver Lifesaving Medals going to the men
in Root's boat crew.
Later, as a senior engineering officer,
Root demonstrated great technical prowess. In 1913, he served aboard
the cutter Seneca during that vessel's historic inaugural cruise in
the International Ice Patrol. But Root specialized in reconditioning
steam vessels for sea service, including the USS Bancroft after the
Navy transferred her to the Revenue Cutter Service to become the
cutter Itasca and the USS Eagle 22 after she became the cutter Earp.
In 1917, the U.S. Navy tasked Root with converting the seagoing
yacht Xafira for war patrol duties and, later that year, it assigned
him the monumental task of restoring the power plant of the interned
Austro-Hungarian passenger liner SS Martha Washington, which the
original crew had sabotaged. Root quickly got the vessel in
operation and served as her first engineering officer for the
remainder of World War I, while the liner transported American
troops between the United States and France. Meanwhile, Root
published papers on marine engineering in professional journals and
the Coast Guard Academy established an academic prize in his name
for the cadet earning the highest grade in mechanical drawing.
Despite his heroism and engineering prowess, Root was best known
for his work in Coast Guard intelligence during Prohibition. In
1924, then Lt. Cmdr. Root created the Coast Guard's Office of
Intelligence. At that phase of the Rum War, the Service was the
nation's sole maritime law enforcement agency responsible for
interdicting illegal liquor along U.S. coasts and inland waterways.
Root built up one of the most respected intelligence sections in the
Federal government by recruiting the best talent, adopting the
finest technology and working closely with offices in the Treasury
Department and Customs Agency. With Root in charge, Coast Guard
Intelligence was credited with breaking up much of the Rum Running
activities along the East Coast. Between 1924 and 1929, he rose in
rank from lieutenant commander to captain and, from 1925 on, held an
additional appointment as customs agent.
Throughout his
career, Root received medals, commendations and special recognition
from the Coast Guard, Treasury Department and U.S. Navy. Terms used
to describe him included “skillful,” “proficient,” “reliable,”
“efficient,” “unselfish” and “untiring,” and the Coast Guard
Intelligence Service later named the Charles S. Root Intelligence
Award for excellence in his honor. In a 1927 commendation, Assistant
Treasury Secretary L.C. Andrews, concluded his letter to then Cmdr.
Root with the following remarks:
“I am truly grateful that I
had a man of your caliber and genius here at hand to help me plan
and carry on this [Prohibition] work. I hope, commander, that you
have a most successful future, as you will always have a very warm
spot in my affections.”
In 1930, Capt. Root died in an
automobile accident in Washington, D.C. In August of that year, he
was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery,
joining numerous distinguished members of the U.S. Coast Guard
interred in that hallowed ground. Charles S. Root was one of the
thousands of Coast Guardsmen and women of the long blue line who
have gone in harm's way and served a variety of missions for Coast
Guard and country.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2015
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