“No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it.” – Daniel Defoe, The Storm
The Great Storm, a force two hurricane with wind speeds of up to 95 miles per hour, hit the south of England and Wales on 26th November 1703, the strong winds finally abating on 28th November. The Church of England declared that the storm was God’s retribution for the sins of the nation and it couldn’t have hit at a worse time. That year saw the greatest concentration of both naval and merchant shipping on the British coast to that date. Due to The War of Spanish Succession merchant ships were forced to travel in escorted convoys for safety against the attacks of French privateers. Three such convoys were anchored in Milford Haven, the Kentish Downs, and the estuary of the Humber when the storm hit. Additionally, the Royal Navy had assembled a fleet in the Solent in preparation for on attack Cádiz. Furthermore, strong winds were driving ships quicker than usual back to England, but preventing the hundreds of ships waiting to set sail from leaving port, leading to congestion. Strong winds together with a high tide caused the water levels to rise six to eight feet feet higher than usual in many places, which was more than many of the frail wooden vessels could bear.
The storm at sea
The devastation to the ships moored in ports, river estuaries, and on the coast was immense. Many merchant vessels were badly damaged of destroyed. On the Thames, some 700 ships were heaped together in the Pool of London, the section of river downstream from London Bridge, suffering various degrees of damage from fallen masts to being wrecked on the river banks. One ship was torn from its moorings in the Helford River in Cornwall and blown for 200 miles before grounding eight hours later on the Isle of Wight. The ships of the Royal Navy fared no better. The 80-gun HMS Cumberland‘s anchor cable broke and was only saved by using a cannon as temporary anchor to stop it running onto rocks. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s HMS Association was blown all the way from Harwich to Gothenburg in Sweden before it was able to make its way back to the shores of England. Other ships were not so lucky, such as the third-rate HMS Restoration, which was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands with the loss of the entire ship’s company of 387. The third-rate HMS Northumberland was also lost with numerous other vessels on the Goodwin Sands, all 220 men, including 24 marines, perishing. In all, some 1,500 seamen died, particularly on the Goodwin Sands, which is an extensive sand bank off the south-east coast of England and the traditional anchorage for ships waiting either for passage up the Thames Estuary to London or for favourable winds to take them out into the Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Hundreds of sailors were stranded on the sandbanks of the Goodwin sands at low tide and all would have perished had it not been for a man named Thomas Powell, the mayor of the town of Deal, who offered a bounty of 5 guineas for every rescued sailor. He managed to save 200 or so sailors before the tide came in, although many were not so lucky to be saved. While the rescue was in progress many inhabitants of the town shamefully preferred to loot the wrecks. In total, around 300 Royal Navy ships anchored along the south coast were badly damaged with thirteen completely lost.
The storm on land
There was also extensive damage to buildings and trees on land. 4000 trees were destroyed in the New Forest in Hampshire alone. Hundreds of buildings lost their roofs or their chimney stacks collapsed, tearing the houses down with them. It is reported that over 2000 buildings in London were damaged in this way, including Westminster Abbey, which lost it’s roof. 5000 houses were destroyed along the banks of the Thames and hundreds of people were killed by collapsing buildings. Additionally, extensive flooding swept through the West Country, drowning hundreds of people and farm animals, destroying as many as 1000 houses in Bristol. 400 windmills were damaged by strong winds, some even catching fire due to excessive friction of the spinning sails. In all, it is thought that between 8,000 and 15,000 people died as a result of the storm, some sources even citing a higher figure between 10,000 and 30,000. The cities of Plymouth, Hull, Cowes, Portsmouth and Bristol were devastated. In the countryside, many roads were impassable for weeks afterwards due to fallen trees.
The Great Storm was the first weather event to become a news story on a national scale. Daniel Defoe wrote a book solely dedicated to it called The Storm, containing numerous eyewitness accounts. He himself had a narrow escape in a street in London when part of a nearby house fell down. He advertised in the London Gazette for witnesses to send in their accounts of the gale and, publishing his book the following year. The Church of England believed the storm to be a punishment from God and Queen Anne proclaimed a national day of fasting on 16th December for the ‘crying sins of this nation’ rather than a day of mourning. The cost of the damage was estimated at £6 million at the time, which amounts to about £1.2 billion in today’s money. There was a great deal of damage which lasted for years caused by the disaster, such as salt contaminating vast areas of farmland. The disaster brought out the best and worst of human nature, as although there were many individual acts of heroism, the valiant rescue attempts were overshadowed by numerous selfish acts of plundering.
For more details about this devastating natural disaster watch the informative video The Great Storm of 1703 by The History Chap.