The
Great Storm of 1703 was one of the most severe
storms or
natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of
Great Britain. The storm came in from the southwest on November 26, 1703.
Observers at the time recorded
barometric readings as low as 973
millibars (measured by
William Derham in south
Essex),
[1] but it has been suggested that the storm may have deepened to 950 millibars over the
Midlands.
Damage
In
London, approximately 2,000 massive chimney stacks were blown down. The lead roofing was blown off
Westminster Abbey and
Queen Anne had to shelter in a cellar at
St. James's Palace to avoid collapsing chimneys and part of the roof. On the
Thames, around 700 ships were heaped together in the
Pool of London, the section downstream from
London Bridge.
HMS Vanguard was wrecked at
Chatham. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's
HMS Association was blown from
Harwich to
Gothenburg in
Sweden before way could be made back to England.
[2] Pinnacles were blown from the top of King’s College Chapel, in Cambridge.
[3]
There was extensive and prolonged flooding in the
West Country, particularly around
Bristol. Hundreds of people drowned in flooding on the
Somerset Levels, along with thousands of sheep and cattle, and one ship was found 15 miles inland.
[4] At
Wells, Bishop
Richard Kidder was killed when two chimneystacks in the palace fell on the bishop and his wife, asleep in bed.
[3] This same storm blew in part of the great west window in
Wells Cathedral. Major damage occurred to the south-west tower of
Llandaff Cathedral at
Cardiff.
At sea, many ships (many returning from helping the King of Spain fight the French in the
War of the Spanish Succession) were wrecked, including on the
Goodwin Sands,
HMS Stirling Castle,
HMS Northumberland,
HMS Mary, and
HMS Restoration, with about 1,500 seamen killed particularly on the
Goodwins. Between 8,000 and 15,000 lives were lost overall.
The first
Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth was destroyed
[3] on 27 November 1703 (Old Style), killing six occupants, including its builder
Henry Winstanley (
John Rudyard
was later contracted to build the second lighthouse on the site).
A
ship torn from its moorings in the Helford River in Cornwall was blown
for 200 miles before grounding eight hours later on the Isle of Wight.
[3] The number of
oak trees lost in the
New Forest alone was 4,000.
The storm of 1703 caught a convoy of 130 merchant ships and their Man
of War escorts, the "Dolphin", the "Cumberland", the "Coventry", the
"Looe", the "Hastings" and the "Hector" sheltering at Milford Haven. By
3pm the next afternoon losses included 30 vessels.
[5]
Reaction
The storm, unprecedented in ferocity and duration, was generally reckoned by witnesses to represent the anger of
God—in recognition of the "crying sins of this nation." The government declared 19 January 1704 a day of
fasting,
saying it "loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of
our people." It remained a frequent topic of moralizing in sermons well
into the nineteenth century.
[6]
Literary
The Great Storm also coincided with the increase in English
journalism,
and was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale.
Special issue broadsheets were produced detailing damage to property
and stories of people who had been killed.
Daniel Defoe produced his full-length book,
The Storm,
published in July 1704, in response to the calamity, calling it "the
tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England." He wrote:
"No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive
it unless by one in the extremity of it." Coastal towns such as
Portsmouth
"looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to
pieces." Winds of up to 80mph destroyed more than 400 windmills.
[7] Defoe reported in some the sails turned so fast that the friction caused the wooden wheels to overheat and catch fire.
[8] He thought the destruction of the sovereign fleet was a punishment for their poor performance against the
Catholic armies of
France and
Spain during the first year of the
War of the Spanish Succession.
[9]
Thirteen ships lost in the Royal Navy
In the English Channel, fierce winds and high seas swamped some
vessels outright and drove others onto the Goodwin Sands, an extensive
sand bank situated along the southeast coast of England and the
traditional anchorage for ships waiting either for passage up the Thames
estuary to London or for favorable winds to take them out into the
Channel and the Atlantic Ocean.
[10] The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships, including the entire Channel Squadron,
[10] and upwards of fifteen hundred seamen drowned.
[11]
- The third rate Restoration was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands; of the ship's company of 387 not one was saved.
- The third rate Northumberland was lost on the Goodwin Sands; all 220 men, including 24 marines were killed.
- The third rate (battleship)[10] Stirling Castle was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. Seventy men, including four marine officers, were saved, but 206 men were drowned.
- The fourth rate Mary
was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The captain and the purser were
ashore, but Rear Admiral Beaumont and 268 other men were drowned. Only
one man, whose name was Thomas Atkins, was saved. His escape was very
remarkable - having first seen the rear admiral get onto a piece of her
quarter-deck when the ship was breaking up, and then get washed off
again, Atkins was tossed by a wave into the Stirling Castle, which sank soon after. From the Stirling Castle he was swept into a boat by a wave, and was rescued.[12]
- The fifth rate Mortar-bomb was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands and her entire company of 65 were lost.
- The sixth rate advice boat Eagle was lost on the coast of Sussex, but her ship's company of 45 were all saved.
- The third rate Resolution was lost at Pevensey on the coast of Sussex; all her ship's company of 221 were saved.
- The fifth rate Litchfield Prize was wrecked on the coast of Sussex; all 108 on board were saved.
- The fourth rate Newcastle was lost at Spithead. The carpenter and 39 men were saved, and the other 193 were drowned.
- The fifth rate fire-ship Vesuvius was lost at Spithead; all 48 of her ship's company were saved.
- The fourth rate Reserve was lost by foundering off Yarmouth. The captain, the surgeon, the clerk, and 44 men were saved; the other 175 members of the crew were drowned.[13]
- The second rate Vanguard was sunk in Chatham harbour. She was not manned and had no armament fitted; the following year she was raised for rebuilding.[14]
- The fourth rate York was lost at Harwich; all but four of her men were saved.
Lamb (1991) claimed 10,000 seamen were lost in one night, a far higher figure, about 1/3 of all the seamen in the British Navy.
[15] Shrewsbury narrowly escaped a similar fate. Over 40 merchant ships were lost.
[16]
