@hamster3null
No one is talking about damage. If you read again what was written above: "although most usually don't get to full-strength until later, many develop quickly enough to affect daily life in Cape Verde".
LeadSled's original description: "I wonder what the tropical revolving thing was, that got me stuck there in the late 1970's. No aircraft in or out for about four/five days".
If you look at Frederic, for example, you can see that it started as a Tropical Depression within 200nm south of Cape Verde, close enough to cancel flights.
Also there are probably a dozen Cape Verde type cyclones in the 1970s. E.g., what became the 1979 Hurricane Gloria for example started as another Tropical Depression literally right on top of Cape Verde.
If LeadSled remembers some dates, we can look up the cyclone in the NOAA database.