Great Storm of 1703

The Great Storm of 1703 was the most severe storm or natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain. It affected southern England and the English Channel in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A 120-mph (193-km/h) "perfect hurricane", it started on 24 November, and did not die down until 2 December 1703 (Old Style).

Observers at the time recorded barometric readings as low as 973 millibars (measured by William Derham in South Essex), but it has been suggested that the storm may have deepened to 950 millibars over the Midlands.

Damage

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 HMS Resolution at Pevensey and on the Goodwin Sands, HMS Stirling Castle, HMS Northumberland and HMS Restoration, with about 1,500 seamen killed particularly on the Goodwins. Between 8,000–15,000 lives were lost overall. The first Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed on 27 November 1703 (Old Style), killing six occupants, including its builder Henry Winstanley. The number of oak trees lost in the New Forest alone was 4,000.

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. HMS Association was blown from Harwich to Gothenburg in Sweden before way could be made back to England.

In London, 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.

There was extensive and prolonged flooding in the West Country, particularly around Bristol. At Wells, Bishop Richard Kidder was killed when two chimneystacks in the palace fell on the bishop and his wife, asleep in bed. 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. According to Stephen Moss ('Wild Hares and Hummingbirds, p 32), 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.

Beliefs and response

A recently discovered contemporary diary written by a witness in rural Worcestershire describes in richly descriptive language the damaging emotional and psychological effects of the storm. 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.

Following the storm's destruction of the first Eddystone Lighthouse (in which the first architect was lost), John Rudyard was contracted to build the second lighthouse on the site.

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 first book, The Storm, published in July 1704, in response to the calamity, calling it "the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England". "No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it," he wrote of it. Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces". 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.

Thirteen ships lost in the Royal Navy

The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships, and upwards of fifteen hundred seamen drowned.

• 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 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 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.
• 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 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 at Yarmouth. The captain, the surgeon, the clerk, and 44 men were saved; the other 175 of the crew were drowned.
• 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.
• 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. Shrewsbury narrowly escaped a similar fate. Over 40 merchant ships were lost.

See also

• UK Weather Records
• European windstorm
• List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll

References

• Defoe, Daniel (2005). Hamblyn, Richard (ed.). ed. The Storm. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0141439920. 
• Brayne, Martin (2002). The Greatest Storm. Sutton. ISBN 0750928042. 
• An Exact Relation of The Late Dreadful Tempest: Or, A Faithful Account of The Most Remarkable Disaster Which Happened On That Occasion. Faithfully Collected By An Ingenious Hand, To Preserve The Memory Of So Terrible A Judgement. London: A. Baldwin. 1704. http://books.google.com/?id=mD0LAQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 2009-08-15. 

Further reading

• Lamb, H.H. and Frydendahl, Knud (1991). Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521375221
• Laughton, Leonard George Carr and Heddon, V. (1927). Great Storms. London: Phillip Allan & Co.

External links

• Restoration HMS and many other ships lost during this storm on the wrecksite
• Analysis by Risk Management Solutions (pdf)
• - The Great Storm
• A Biographical Memoir of Sir Cloudesly Shovell