On Aug. 21, 1873 the weather service of the U.S. Army Signal Corps issued its first warning for a hurricane. A long-tracking Cape Verde-type storm, it was initially detected by ship and warnings were posted from Cape May, NJ to New London, CT. Warning signal flags were hoisted at harbors and Coast Guard stations along the coast. However, the hurricane recurved and made landfall on Newfoundland. Most of the deaths were from ships which foundered at sea in the storm but the storm caused US $3.5 million in damage to the Canadian Maritime provinces and Newfoundland and killed at least 223 people, most sailors lost at sea.
