THE GREATEST STORM IN ENGLISH HISTORY.
The Dangers of the Seas—England’s Interest in the Matter—The
Shipping and Docks of London and Liverpool—The Goodwin Sands and
their History—The “Hovellers”—The Great Gale of 1703—Defoe’s
Graphic Account—Thirteen Vessels of the Royal Navy Lost—Accounts
of Eye-witnesses—The Storm Universal over England—Great Damage and
Loss of Life at Bristol—Plymouth—Portsmouth—Vessels Driven to
Holland—At the Spurn Light—Inhumanity of Deal Townsmen—A worthy
Mayor Saves 200 Lives—The Damage in the Thames—Vessels Drifting in
all Directions—800 Boats Lost—Loss of Life on the River—On
Shore—Remarkable Escapes and Casualties—London in a Condition of
Wreck—Great Damage to Churches—A Bishop and his Lady Killed—A
Remarkable Water-Spout—Total Losses Fearful.
“The dangers of the seas” are little enough to some countries, but to
England they mean much indeed. Think of the maritime interests of the port
of London, the docks of which cover considerably over 300 acres of
water-space, and to which 7,000 or more vessels enter annually. Over 100
vessels, exclusive of small craft, enter the port daily; its exports form
nearly one-fourth of the total exports of the United Kingdom. Liverpool in
some maritime interests excels it. This, the second largest city in Great
Britain, had, as late as 1697, a population of only 5,000; 80 small
vessels then belonged to the port. In this year of grace, Liverpool, with
her virtual suburbs, Birkenhead and West Derby, has a population
considerably over 700,000. In 1872, Liverpool exported, in British and
Irish productions, a total value of £100,066,410, which meant little short
of forty per cent. of the total exports, of the same kind, from the United
Kingdom, while its imports of many staples exceeded those of London.
Liverpool has nearly sixty docks and basins, extending along the Mersey
for five miles. She possesses nineteen miles of quays, nearly the whole of
which have been built since 1812, and warehouses on a scale of
magnificence unknown elsewhere.
But such a commerce means much more. Hundreds of thousands of hardy men
risk their lives that we may have bread and butter, sugar with our tea,
and all the necessaries and luxuries of modern civilised life. England has
not forgotten them, and for their use has built the lighthouse, the
breakwater, and the harbour of refuge. But there are sources of danger
which nearly defy human power. Take, among all dangerous shoals and sands,
the Goodwin Sands as a prominent example; they are replete with danger to
all sailing vessels at least, resorting to the Thames or to the North Sea,
while even steamships have been lost on their treacherous banks.
These Sands, so well known to, and feared by, the mariner, are ten miles
in length, running in a north-east and south-west direction off the east
coast of Kent. They are divided into two portions by a narrow channel, and
parts are uncovered at low water. When the tide recedes, the sand is firm
and safe, but when the sea permeates it, the mass becomes pulpy,
treacherous, and constantly shifting. Three light-vessels (one seven miles
from Ramsgate) mark the most dangerous points, and these are themselves
exposed to a considerable amount of danger. The only advantage derived
from the existence of the Sands is that they form a kind of breakwater,
securing a safe anchorage in the roadsteads of the Downs. But if the wind
blows strongly off shore, let the mariner beware!
The ancients thought that Britain was distinguished from all the world by
unpassable seas and northern winds. The shores of Albion were dreadful to
sailors, and our island was for a time regarded as the utmost bounds of
the northern known land, beyond which none had ever sailed.
These dangerous Goodwin Sands, if we may believe the chronicles, and there
seems no reason why we should not, consisted at one time of about 4,000
acres of low coast land, fenced from the sea by a wall. One tradition, not
usually credited, ascribes their present state to the erection of the
Tenterden Steeple, by which the funds which should have maintained the
sea-wall were diverted. An old authority, Lambard, says, “Whatsoever old
wives tell of Goodwyne, Earle of Kent, in tyme of Edward the Confessour,
and his sandes, it appeareth by Hector Boëtius, the Brittish chronicler,
that theise sandes weare mayne land, and some tyme of the possession of
Earl Goodwyne, and by a great inundation of the sea, they weare taken
therefroe, at which tyme also much harme was done in Scotland and
Flanders, by the same rage of the water.” At the period of the Conquest,
these lands were taken from Earl Goodwin and bestowed on the abbey of St.
Augustine, Canterbury, and some accounts say that the Abbot allowed the
sea-wall to become dilapidated, and that in the year 1100 the waves rushed
in and overwhelmed the whole. The inroads of the sea in many parts of the
world would account for anything of the kind.
In dangerous or foggy weather, bells are constantly sounded from the
light-ships. A considerable amount of difficulty is experienced in finding
proper anchorage for these vessels; and all efforts to establish a fixed
beacon have been hitherto unsuccessful. In 1846 a lighthouse on piles
_screwed_ into the sands(66) was erected, but it was carried away the
following year by the force of the waves. As soon as a vessel is known to
have been driven on the Goodwins, rockets are thrown up from the
light-ships, and as soon as recognised on shore a number of boatmen, known
as “hovellers,” all over that portion of the coast, immediately launch
their boats, and make for the Sands, whatever may be the weather. The
“hovellers” look upon the wreck itself as in part their property, and make
a good deal of money at times, leading, as a rule, a thoroughly reckless
sailor’s life ashore. But how many poor seamen have had cause to bless
their bravery and intrepidity!
The great gale of 1703, one of the most terrible, if not absolutely _the_
most terrible which has ever visited our coasts, occasioned the loss of
thirteen vessels of the Royal Navy, four on the Goodwin Sands, one in the
Yarmouth Roads, one at the Nore, and the rest at various points on the
coasts of England and Holland. The record, as preserved by the immortal
author of “Robinson Crusoe,” is terribly concise in its details. Take a
part only of it. The italics are our own.
“_Reserve_, fourth-rate; 54 guns; 258 men. John Anderson, com. Lost in
Yarmouth Roads. The captain, purser, master, chyrurgeon, clerk, and 16 men
were ashore; _the rest drowned_.
“_Northumberland_, third-rate; 70 guns; 253 men. James Greenway, com. Lost
on Goodwin Sands. _All their men lost._
“_Restoration_, third-rate; 70 guns; 386 men. Fleetwood Emes, com. Lost on
Goodwin Sands. _All their men lost._
“_Sterling Castle_, third-rate; 70 guns; 349 men. John Johnson, com. Lost
on Goodwin Sands. Third lieutenant, chaplain, cook, chyrurgeon’s mate,
four marine captains, and 62 men saved.
“_Mary_, fourth-rate; 64 guns; 273 men. Rear-Admiral Beaumont, Edward
Hopson, com. Lost on Goodwin Sands. _Only one man saved_, by swimming from
wreck to wreck, and getting to the _Sterling Castle_; the captain ashore,
as also the purser.” And so the sad story proceeds, Defoe adding that the
loss of small vessels hired into the service, and tending the fleet, is
not included, several such vessels, with soldiers on board, being driven
to sea, and never heard of more.(67)
[Illustration: GREAT STORM IN THE DOWNS, 1703.]
A master on board a vessel which was blown “out of the Downs to Norway,”
describes the sights he saw on those fatal days, the 25th and 26th of
November, in homely but graphic language. He says: “By four o’clock we
miss’d the _Mary_ and the _Northumberland_, who rid not far from us, and
found they were driven from their anchors; but what became of them, God
knows. And soon after, a large man-of-war came driving down upon us, all
her masts gone, and in a dreadful condition. We were in the utmost despair
at this sight, for we saw no avoiding her coming thwart our haiser; she
drove at last so near us, that I was just gowing to order the mate to cut
away, when it pleas’d God the ship sheer’d contrary to our expectation to
windward, and the man-of-war, which we found to be the _Sterling Castle_,
drove clear of us, not two ships’ lengths, to leeward.
“It was a sight full of terrible particulars to see a ship of eighty guns
(_sic_) and about six hundred men(68) in that dismal case. She had cut
away all her masts; the men were all in the confusion of death and
despair; she had neither anchor, nor cable, nor boat to help her, the sea
breaking over her in a terrible manner, that sometimes she seem’d all
under water. And they knew, as well as we that saw her, that they drove by
the tempest directly for the Goodwin, where they could expect nothing but
destruction. The cries of the men, and the firing their guns, one by one,
every half minute for help, terrified us in such a manner, that I think we
were half dead with the horror of it.” The same writer describes the
collision of two vessels, which he saw sink together, and several great
ships fast aground and beating to pieces. “One,” says he, “we saw founder
before our eyes, and all the people perish’d.”
“We have,” says Defoe, “an abundance of strange accounts from other parts,
and particularly the following letter from the Downs, and though every
circumstance in this letter is not literally true, as to the number of
ships or lives lost, and the style coarse and sailor-like, yet I have
inserted this letter, because it seems to describe the horror and
consternation the poor sailors were in at that time; and because this is
written from one who was as near an eye-witness as any could possibly be,
and be safe.
“‘SIR,—These lines I hope in God will find you in good health. We are all
left here in a dismal condition, expecting every moment to be all drowned;
for here is a great storm, and is very likely to continue. We have here
the Rear-Admiral of the Blue in the ship called the _Mary_, a third-rate,
the very next ship to ours, sunk, with Admiral Beaumont, and above 500 men
drowned; the ship called the _Northumberland_, a third-rate, about 500
men, all sunk and drowned; the ship called the _Sterling Castle_, a
third-rate, all sunk and drowned, above 500 souls; and the ship called the
_Restoration_, a third-rate, all sunk and drowned. These ships were all
close by us, which I saw. These ships fired their guns all night and day
long, poor souls, for help, but the storm being so fierce and raging,
could have none to save them. The ship called the _Shrewsbury_, that we
are in, broke two anchors, and did run mighty fierce backwards, within
sixty or eighty yards of the Sands, and as God Almighty would have it, we
flung our sheet-anchor down, which is the biggest, and so stopt; here we
all prayed God to forgive us our sins, and to save us, or else to receive
us into his heavenly Kingdom. If our sheet-anchor had given way, we had
been all drowned; but I humbly thank God, it was his gracious mercy that
saved us. There’s one, Captain Fanel’s ship, three hospital ships, all
split, some sunk, and most of the men drowned.
“‘There are above forty merchant ships cast away and sunk; to see Admiral
Beaumont, that was next us, and all the rest of his men, how they climbed
up the main-mast, hundreds at a time crying out for help, and thinking to
save their lives, and in the twinkling of an eye were drowned; I can give
you no account, but of these four men-of-war aforesaid, which I saw with
my own eyes, and those hospital ships, at present, by reason the storm
hath drove us far distant from one another; Captain Crow, of our ship,
believes we have lost several more ships of war, by reason we see so few;
we lie here in great danger, and waiting for a north-easterly wind to
bring us to Portsmouth, and it is our prayer to God for it; for we know
not how soon this storm may arise, and cut us all off, for it is a dismal
place to anchor in. I have not had my clothes off, nor a wink of sleep
these four nights, and have got my death with cold almost.—Yours to
command,
“‘MILES NORCLIFFE.’”(69)
The following is also a characteristic letter from Captain Soanes of
H.M.S. _Dolphin_, then at Milford Haven, showing also how far the storm
extended on our coasts:—
“_Sir_,—Reading the advertisement in the _Gazette_ of your intending to
print the many sad accidents in the late dreadful storm, induced me to let
you know what this place felt, though a very good harbour. Her Majesty’s
ships the _Cumberland_, _Coventry_, _Loo_, _Hastings_, and _Hector_, being
under my command, with the _Rye_, a cruiser on this station, and under our
convoy, about 130 merchant ships bound about land; the 26th of November,
at one in the afternoon, the wind came at S. by E. a hard gale, between
which and N.W. by W. it came to a dreadful storm; at three the next
morning was the violentest of the weather, when the _Cumberland_ broke her
sheet-anchor, the ship driving near this, and the _Rye_ both narrowly
escap’d carrying away; she drove very near the rocks, having but one
anchor left, but in a little time they slung a gun, with the broken anchor
fast to it, which they let go, and wonderfully preserved the ship from the
shore. Guns firing from one ship or other all the night for help, though
’twas impossible to assist each other, the sea was so high, and the
darkness of the night such, that we could not see where any one was, but
by the flashes of the guns; when daylight appeared, it was a dismal sight
to behold the ships driving up and down, one foul of another, without
masts, some sunk, and others upon the rocks, the wind blowing so hard,
with thunder, lightning, and rain, that on the deck a man could not stand
without holding. Some drove from Dale, where they were sheltered under the
land, and split in pieces, the men all drowned; two others drove out of a
creek, one on the shore so high up was saved; the other on the rocks in
another creek, and bulged; an Irish ship that lay with a rock through her,
was lifted by the sea clear away to the other side of the creek on a safe
place; one ship forced ten miles up the river before she could be stopped,
and several strangely blown into holes, and on banks; a ketch, of
Pembroke, was drove on the rocks, the two men and a boy in her had no boat
to save their lives, but in this great distress a boat which broke from
another ship drove by them, without any in her, the two men leaped into
her and were saved, but the boy was drowned. A prize at Pembroke was
lifted on the bridge, whereon is a mill, which the water blew up, but the
vessel got off again; another vessel carried almost into the gateway which
leads to the bridge, and is a road, the tide flowing several feet above
the common course. The storm continued till the 27th, about three in the
afternoon; that by computation nigh thirty merchant ships and vessels
without masts are lost, and what men are lost is not known; three ships
are missing, that we suppose men and all lost. None of her Majesty’s ships
came to any harm; but the _Cumberland_ breaking her anchor in a storm
which happen’d the 18th at night, lost another, which renders her
incapable of proceeding with us till supplied. I saw several trees and
houses which are blown down.—Your humble servant,
“JOS. SOANES.“
The disasters caused by this terrible gale extended over the English
coasts. At Bristol the tide filled the merchants’ cellars, spoiling 1,000
hogsheads of sugar, 1,500 hogsheads of tobacco, and any quantity of other
produce, the damage being estimated at £100,000. Eighty people were
drowned in the marshes and river. Among the shipping casualties, the
_Canterbury_ store-ship went ashore, and twenty-five men were drowned from
her. The Severn overflowed the country, doing great damage at Gloucester;
and 15,000 sheep were drowned on the levels and marshes. Four merchant
ships were lost in Plymouth Roads, and most of the men were drowned. At
Portsmouth a number of vessels were blown to sea, and some of them never
heard of more. About a dozen ships were driven from our coasts to Holland,
the crews, for the most part, being saved. At Dunkirk, twenty-three or
more vessels were dashed to pieces against the pier-head.
Mr. Peter Walls, master or chief lighthouse-keeper of the Spurn Light at
the mouth of the Humber, was present on the 26th of November, the fatal
night of the storm. He thought that his lighthouse must have been blown
down, and the tempest made the fire in it burn so fiercely that “it melted
down the iron bars, on which it laid, like lead,” so that they were
obliged when the fire was nearly extinguished to put in fresh bars, and
re-kindle the fire, keeping it up till the morning dawn, when they found
that some six or seven-and-twenty sail of ships were driving helplessly
about the Spurn Head, some having cut, and others broken their cables.
These were a part of two fleets then lying in the Humber, having put in
there by stress of weather a day or two before. Three ships were driven on
an island called the Don. The first no sooner touched bottom than she
completely capsized, turning keel up; strange to say, out of six men on
board, only one was drowned, the other five being rescued by the boat of
the second ship. They landed at the Spurn Lighthouse, where Mr. Walls got
them good fires and all the comforts they needed. The second ship, having
nobody on board, was driven to sea and never seen or heard of more. The
third broke up, and next morning some coals that had been in her were all
that was to be seen. Of the whole number of vessels in the Humber, few, if
any, were saved.
Defoe estimates that 150 sea-going vessels of all sorts were lost in this
terrific gale; but this is, in all probability, a very low estimate. And
it is as nothing to the fearful loss of life, which amounted to 8,000
souls.
The townspeople of Deal, in particular, were blamed for their inhumanity
in leaving many to their fate who could have been rescued. Boatmen went
off to the sands for booty, some of whom would not listen to poor wretches
who might have been saved. Many unfortunate shipwrecked persons could be
seen, by the aid of glasses, walking on the Goodwin Sands in despairing
postures, knowing that they would, as Defoe puts it, “be washed into
another world” at the reflux of the tide. The Mayor of Deal, Mr. Thomas
Powell, asked the Custom House officers to take out their boats and
endeavour to save the lives of some of these unfortunates, but they
utterly refused. The mayor then offered, from his own pocket, five
shillings a head for all saved, and a number of fishermen and others
volunteered, and succeeded in bringing 200 persons on shore, who would
have been lost in half an hour afterwards. The Queen’s agent for sick and
wounded seamen would not furnish a penny for their lodging or food, and
the good mayor supplied all of them with what they required. Several died,
and he was compelled to bury them at his own expense; he furnished a large
number with money to pay their way to London. He received no thanks from
the Government of the day, but some long time after was re-imbursed the
large sums he had expended.
[Illustration: THE STORM IN THE THAMES AT WAPPING.]
“Nor,” says Defoe, “can the damage suffered in the river of Thames be
forgot. It was a strange sight to see all the ships in the river blown
away, the Pool was so clear, that, as I remember, not above four ships
were left between the upper part of Wapping and Ratcliffe Cross, for the
tide being up at the time when the storm blew with the greatest violence,
no anchors or landfast, no cables or moorings, would hold them, the chains
which lay across the river for the mooring of ships, all gave way.
“The ships breaking loose thus, it must be a strange sight to see the
hurry and confusion of it; and, as some ships had nobody at all on board,
and a great many had none but a man or boy just to look after the vessel,
there was nothing to be done but to let every vessel drive whither and how
she would.
“Those who know the reaches of the river, and how they lie, know well
enough that the wind being at south-west-westerly, the vessels would
naturally drive into the bite or bay from Ratcliffe Cross to Limehouse
Hole, for that the river winding about again from thence towards the new
dock at Deptford runs almost due south-west, so that the wind blew down
one reach and up another, and the ships must of necessity drive into the
bottom of the angle between both.
“This was the case, and as the place is not large, and the number of ships
very great, the force of the wind had driven them so into one another, and
laid them so upon one another, as it were in heaps, that I think a man may
safely defy all the world to do the like.
“The author of this collection had the curiosity the next day to view the
place, and to observe the posture they lay in, which nevertheless it is
impossible to describe; there lay, by the best account he could take, few
less than seven hundred sail of ships, some very great ones, between
Shadwell and Limehouse inclusive; the posture is not to be imagined but by
them that saw it; some vessels lay heeling off with the bow of another
ship over her waist, and the stern of another upon her forecastle; the
boltsprits of some drove into the cabin-windows of others; some lay with
their sterns tossed up so high that the tide flowed into their forecastles
before they could come to rights; some lay so leaning upon others that the
undermost vessels would sink before the other could float; the numbers of
masts, boltsprits and yards split and broke, the staving the heads and
sterns, and carved work, the tearing and destruction of rigging, and the
squeezing of boats to pieces between the ships, is not to be reckoned; but
there was hardly a vessel to be seen that had not suffered some damage or
other in one or all of these articles.
“There were several vessels sunk in this hurricane, but as they were
generally light ships the damage was chiefly to the vessels; but there
were two ships sunk with great quantity of goods on board: the _Russell_
galley was sunk at Limehouse, being a great part laden with bale goods for
the Straits; and the _Sarah_ galley, laden for Leghorn, sunk at an anchor
at Blackwall, and though she was afterwards weighed and brought on shore,
yet her back was broken, or so otherwise disabled that she was never fit
for the sea. There were several men drowned in these last two vessels, but
we could never come to have the particular number.
[Illustration: THE WEST-INDIAMEN DRIVEN ASHORE AT TILBURY FORT.]
“Near Gravesend several ships drove on shore below Tilbury Fort, and among
them five bound for the West Indies; but as the shore is oozy and soft,
the vessels sat upright and easy.” The loss of small craft in the river
was enormous; not less than 300 ships’ boats and 500 wherries were sunk or
dashed to pieces. Barges and lighters were sunk and broke loose by the
score, and twenty-two watermen and others working on the river were
drowned.
The effect of this tempest was felt very severely on shore, not less than
123 persons being killed by falling buildings, &c. It is said that not
less than 800 dwellings were blown down, while barns, stacks of chimneys,
pinnacles, steeples, and trees, were strewed all over the country.
Dozens of remarkable cases might be given of wonderful preservations at
sea during this storm, and one or two have been cited. A small vessel ran
on the rocks in Milford Haven and was fast breaking up, when an empty
boat, which had got loose, drifted past so near the wreck that two men
jumped into it and saved their lives. A poor boy on board could not jump
so far, and was drowned. A poor sailor of Brighthelmston was taken off a
wreck after he had hung by his hands and feet on the top of a mast for
eight-and-forty hours, the sea raging so high that no boat durst approach
him. A waterman in the river Thames, lying asleep in the cabin of a barge
near Blackfriars, was driven below London Bridge, “and the barge went of
herself into the Tower Dock, and lay safe on shore. The man never waked
nor heard the storm till it was day; and, to his great astonishment, he
found himself safe, as above.” Two boys, lodging in the Poultry, and
living in a top garret, were, by the fall of chimneys, which broke through
the floors, carried quite to the bottom of the cellar, and received no
hurt at all.
It has been shown how universal was the storm on the English coasts, and
it extended to all parts of the interior.(70) In Norfolk, a small town
experienced the horrors of fire simultaneously with the gale. The
inhabitants were powerless to extinguish it; and the wind blew the ruins,
almost as much as the fire, in all directions. If the people came to
windward they were in danger of being blown into the flames, and to
leeward they dared not approach the fire, which would have scorched them
up. Those who escaped the conflagration ran the imminent risk of being
knocked on the head by bricks and tiles, which flew about as though they
were tinder. The storm, although most severe on the Friday
before-mentioned, lasted almost continuously for a week.
The city of London was a strange spectacle at this time. “The houses
looked like skeletons,” says Defoe, “and an universal air of horror seemed
to sit on the countenances of the people. All business seemed to be laid
aside for the time, and people were generally intent upon getting help to
repair their habitations.” The streets lay covered with tiles and slates,
bricks and chimney-pots. Common tiles rose from 21s. per thousand to £6.
Above 2,000 great stacks of chimneys were blown down in and about London,
besides gable-ends and roofs by the score, and about twenty whole houses
in the suburbs. In addition to those killed by the fall of various parts
of buildings, above 200 were reported as wounded and maimed. And it must
be remembered that these were not the days of morning and evening and
special editions, and copious and generally correct reports. Had
telegraphs and railways and steamships brought in the news collected by
innumerable correspondents, as they would to-day, Defoe’s book would never
have been compiled. And it may be here observed, in honour of the memory
of that immortal author, that he never cites a case, or speaks of it as a
positive fact, without giving his authority or authorities. He says in one
place, “Some of our printed accounts give us larger and plainer accounts
of the loss of lives than I will venture to affirm for truth: as of
several houses near Moorfields levelled with the ground; fourteen people
drowned in a wherry going to Gravesend and five in a wherry from Chelsea.
Not that it is not very probable to be true, but, as I resolve not to hand
anything to posterity but what comes very well attested, I omit such
relations as I have not extraordinary assurance as to the fact.” This is
hardly the way with all book-makers!
Most of those killed were buried or crushed by the broken fragments and
rubbish of falling stacks of chimneys or walls. The fall of brick walls
made a serious item in the losses. At Greenwich Park several pieces of the
wall were down for a hundred rods at a place; the palace of St. James’s
was greatly damaged; the roof of the guard-house at Whitehall blown off,
seriously hurting nine soldiers; the lead stripped off and rolled up like
parchment from scores of churches and public buildings, including
Westminster Abbey and Christ Church Hospital. “It was very remarkable,”
Defoe notes, “that the bridge over the Thames [_i.e._, Old London Bridge]
received so little damage, the buildings standing high and not sheltered
by other erections, as they would be in the streets. Above a hundred elms,
some of them said to have been planted by Wolsey, were blown down in St.
James’s Park. Very fortunately the storm was succeeded by fine weather:
for had rain or snow followed, the misery and damage to hundreds and
hundreds of tenants would have been fearfully increased.”
At Stowmarket, in Suffolk, one of the largest spires—100 feet high above
the steeple—was completely carried away, with all its heavy timbers and an
immense quantity of lead. So in Brenchly and Great Peckham, Kent, the
former doing damage to the church and porch as it fell, and entailing a
total loss of £800 to £1,000, which would represent much more in these
days. “The cathedral church of Ely,” said one of Defoe’s correspondents,
“by the providence of God, did, contrary to all men’s expectations, stand
out the shock, but suffered very much in every part of it, especially that
which is called the body of it, the lead being torn and rent up a
considerable way together; about 40 lights of glass blown down and
shattered to pieces; one ornamental pinnacle, belonging to the north
aisle, demolished; and the lead in divers other parts of it blown up into
great heaps. Five chimneys falling down in a place called the Colledge,
the place where the prebendaries’ lodgings are, did no other damage
(prais’d be God!) than beat down some part of the houses along with them.
The loss which the church and college of Ely sustained being, by
computation, near £2,000.” Accounts of nearly irretrievable damage done to
valuable painted church windows, for one of which—at Fairford,
Gloucester—£1,500 had been offered, came from many points. In some cases
the lead blown from roofs, amounting to tons in weight, was so tightly
rolled up that it took a number of men to unroll it without cutting or
other damage.
The Bishop of Bath and Wells was killed under rather remarkable
circumstances. The palace was the relic of a very old castle, only one
corner of it being modernised for his lordship’s use. Had the bishop slept
in the new portion his life would have been spared; but he remained in one
of the older apartments. Two chimney-stacks fell and crushed in the roof,
driving it upon the bishop’s bed, forcing it quite through the next floor
into the hall, and burying both himself and lady in the rubbish. The
former appears to have risen, perhaps perceiving the approaching danger,
and was found, with his brains dashed out, near a doorway.
One of the most remarkable cases of the power of the wind ashore was the
removal of a stone of four hundredweight, which lay sheltered under a
bank, to a distance of seven yards. On the Kingscote estate, in
Gloucester, 600 trees, all about eighty feet in height, were thrown down
within a compass of five acres. The storm was accompanied by thunder and
lightning and waterspouts. A clergyman, writing from Besselsleigh,
says:—“On Friday, the 26th of November, in the afternoon, about four of
the clock, a country fellow came running to me, in a great fright, and
very earnestly entreated me to go and see a pillar, as he called it, in
the air in a field hard by. I went with the fellow, and when I came found
it to be a spout marching directly with the wind; and I can think of
nothing I can compare it to better than the trunk of an elephant, which it
resembled—only much bigger. It was extended to a great length, and swept
the ground as it went, leaving a mark behind. It crossed a field, and,
which was very strange (and which I should scarce have been induced to
believe had I not myself seen it, besides several countrymen, who were
astonished at it, meeting with an oak that stood towards the middle of the
field, snapped the body of it asunder. Afterwards, crossing a road, it
sucked up the water that was in the cart-ruts. Then, coming to an old
barn, it tumbled it down, and the thatch that was on the top was carried
about by the wind, which was then very high and in great confusion. After
this I followed it no farther, and therefore saw no more of it, but a
parishioner of mine, going from hence to Hincksey, in a field about a
quarter of a mile off of this place, was on the sudden knocked down and
lay upon the place till some people came by and brought him home; and he
is not yet quite recovered.” An earthquake is also said to have followed
the great storm.
Enough has now been written to show how universal were the effects of this
terrible gale. The details, as recorded by Defoe and others, would fill
several chapters like the present. The author of “Robinson Crusoe” puts,
as we have seen, the loss of life partly on land but principally by sea,
at 8,000, but a French authority places it at the enormous number of
30,000! It can well be believed that a large proportion of the casualties
were never reported or recorded.
[Illustration: A LIFE-BOAT GOING OUT.]
[Illustration: GREATHEAD’S LIFE-BOAT.]