The Hog Island Life-Saving Station was commissioned in 1875. This photograph is of the 2nd of a total of five different stations to be erected on the island. This station responded to twenty-four major shipwrecks. The Keeper and surfmen of the Hog Island station received the Gold and Silver Life-Saving Medals for their heroic efforts at the scene of the shipwreck San Albano, in 1892.

History of Shipwrecks and Rescues

- This idyllic scene was destroyed by a violent hurricane in 1903. Abruptly, development ceased in the south-end of Ocean City.
 - This same area was again destroyed 30 years later during the Hurricane of August 1933 which formed the present day Ocean City Inlet.

1903

A well-remembered scene in Ocean City was fish monger Hazzard Taylor in 1910.
He was always a welcome sight to everyone in town. Fresh fried fish was a staple on Ocean City menus.

1910

A ride on an oxen-drawn cart was a pleasurable treat for those who vacationed at Ocean City.
This 1912 photograph shows guests of the Belmont Hotel enjoying a ride along the surf.

1912

                         - Collection of the Ocean City Museum Society Inc. -
Considered a sportsman’s paradise, the beaches and back bays of Ocean City were a magnet to wildfowl hunters.
Some of the wealthiest men in America used these humble gunning shanties as shelter in their pursuit of ducks and geese.
Captain J. W. Quillin made a fine living and many important social connections as a hunting guide. (This was a 1926 Worcester County, Maryland tourism advertisement.)

1926

There was no beach to speak of during the early 1930s. The ocean often spilled onto the side streets and flooded Baltimore Avenue. Note the height of the boardwalk in those days and the large crowd gathered to watch the adventurous swimmers.

1930s

Ruth Phillips Meeker of Cambridge, Maryland poses on the beach at Ocean City in 1931. She, incidentally, lived to be more than 100 years old.

1931

Collection of Virginia Ayres Satterfield

Dressed in the bathing fashion of the day, the John J. Ayres family frolics in the Ocean City surf.
These brothers and sisters would later become prominent business people of the town.

Notations on the back of this photograph: “Herring Hog, harpooned off Ocean City, Md.,
250 pounds, (party) Mr. & Mrs. T. J. Burke, Jr., July 5, 1934.”

1934

Note the well-dressed crowd on the Boardwalk for the Fourth of July 1948 celebration.

1948

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- 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane -

- Storm path -

- Track of the 1933 Hurricane across Virginia and Maryland. -

- 1933 hurricane rainfall across the Northeast -

The storm's wind and waves tore out long stretches of the Boardwalk. It was rebuilt to stand taller, hopefully above future storm waves.

Storm survivors survey the damage in Ocean City. Described in the American Meteorological Society's August 1933 weather review as "one of the most severe storms that has ever visited the Middle Atlantic Coast," the slow-moving weather mass dumped 10 inches of rain a day for nearly a week, even before wind gusts as high as 80 mph and a 7-foot tide arrived. (Baltimore Sun file photo / August 18, 2008)

The storm severed rail and road ties to the island. The elevated causeway was wrecked.

Sinepuxent Bay

Sightseers watch repair work to the bridge into Ocean City following the hurricane of August 23, 1933 -- one of the worst storms ever to strike the resort.

ocean city storm

Ocean City Md., 1933

Ocean City Md., 1933

Great Storm of 1933

Cleanup

Causeway, Ocean City

Baltimore Harbor

The interchange where the causeway connects with Ocean City's streets was still awash days after the storm.

1933 STORM Ankle-deep

- SHIFTING SANDS -

stinkybeach 1933 Shifting Sands of Time

stinkybeach

1964

The so-called "Storm of the Century" slammed into the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina to New England on March 5-9,1962.

During March 6 and 7, 1962, a storm raged along the East Coast from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to Long Island, N.Y. It caused extensive damage. At the time, property loss was placed at nearly $200 million. Aerial view of Ocean City at the height of flooding.

Extensive flooding (Baltimore Sun photo by Clarence B. Garrett) The storm is considered worse than the hurricane that hit the seaside town in 1933. Strong winds and an especially high tide caused flooding in Ocean City and along the coast.

1962

Rescue (Baltimore Sun photo by Clarence B. Garrett) Rescue workers transfer an Ocean City resident from a truck to a bus on the bridge across Sinepuxent Bay. Forty people were killed on the East Coast and more

1962

Once flood waters receded, prison work crews were brought in from the Poplar Hill Labor Camp in Quantico, Md., to help with cleanup.

1962

Marine railway and repair shed

1962

Flooding from the storm was made worse by the moon phase and tides.

1962

The winter population was about 1,500. Two-thirds left town in the evacuation.

The view southward on Philadelphia Avenue. The sea was driven into the city by gale gusts that reached hurricane force.

Flooded Ocean City streets

When the floodwaters finally receded, streets and lawns were buried in sand and debris.

An aerial view of Ocean City shows extensive damage done by high tides and stiff winds.

Boats were smashed, sunk and washed up in streets and lawns. A crab boat in a flooded driveway on Chincoteague Street in Ocean City.

Portions of the Ocean City Boardwalk were pushed off their pilings, slamming into hotels and other buildings.

A National Guardsman looks to the ocean as he stands watch at the Oceanic Motel. Eventually, 300 guardsmen were on hand to prevent looting and provide around-the-clock security. There were no major thefts reported.

Harold Rayne Jr., his daughter, Sally, 11; Earl Simpson, 12, and Bill Simpson, 7, shovel sand from a street in Ocean City.

The sand blanketed the town, burying everything from cars to houses. Bulldozers move sand back toward the beach at 4th Street.

A section of Ocean City where a home once stood and driftwood at 77th Street.

Aerial view of a destroyed oceanfront motel in Ocean City.

A portion of the Ocean City Boardwalk ripped from its pilings by the storm.

Cleanup in front of the Lankford Hotel in Ocean City. The State Roads Commission brought about 150 pieces of equipment to Ocean City to start the cleanup.

Wrecker crews attempt to free a half-buried car.

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