The excursionists arrived at St. George, Bermuda, on the morning of 11 November, planning to depart for New York on 14 November. They had fair weather for most of the Atlantic crossing, including their first two days in Bermuda, but according to Captain Duncan, on 13 November a “hard gale from SW to North West” momentarily imperiled the ship and postponed departure until 15 November. Clemens evidently assumed that this gale represented the passage northward of an unusually severe hurricane which had caused extensive damage in the West Indies on 29 October, more than two weeks before, and which his family had presumably read about in the St. Louis newspapers (Denny, entries for 25 Oct–15 Nov; Charles C. Duncan 1867, entries for 25 Oct–13 Nov; New York Times: “The West Indies,” 16 Nov 67, 1; “Tortola” and “St. Domingo,” 19 Nov 67, 1; “West Indies,” 21 Nov 67, 5).

SLC to Jane Lampton Clemens and Family, 20 Nov 1867, New York, N.Y. (UCCL 00155), n. 5.