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Weather Almanac

Weather Almanac for November 2007

BRITAIN'S GREAT STORM OF 1703

In the late autumn of 1703, a fierce windstorm struck the British Isles. Over three centuries later, that storm is still considered the greatest storm to ever strike Britain in recorded history. Some historians argue that the storm lead to profound changes in Britain's social and industrial structure. It also spawned one of the earliest books written solely on a weather event. The Storm was the first published work by a young writer now known chiefly for his classic Robinson Crusoe: Daniel Defoe.


The Great Storm by J.S. Müller

Whenever I write an article on weather history, I try to post it in the month in which the event occurred. When I chose the Great Storm of 1703, I encountered an interesting dilemma. In contemporary chronicles, the storm raged from 24 November to 2 December; however, that was chronicled in the old Julian calendar and with date corrections for our current Gregorian calendar, the storm struck on 7 December. The Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, but the British did not make the change until 1752, causing historians much consternation over these transition centuries. (Russia did not make the change until after the October Revolution, 1918 and the last European nation to change was Greece in 1923.) In this piece, I have kept the dates using the Julian calendar to conform with the original source materials.

The Storm

"No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it," wrote Daniel Defoe, in his eye-witness account of the storm. "[N]o storm since the Universal Deluge was like this, either in its violence or its duration." He further described the storm as "the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England."

He likely was right, for when the toll of human life in Britain on land and at sea from this storm was tallied, it numbered 8000 to 9000, perhaps as many as 15,000, most aboard the 500-700 vessels sunk or damaged by the gales. In addition to the human losses, four thousand trees were uprooted in the New Forest, east of Bournemouth, alone; four hundred windmills and eight to nine hundred houses were destroyed; and over a hundred churches severely damaged by the storm winds.

The Summer of 1703 had been unusually wet across Britain and the Autumn had been very warm, according to contemporary newspaper accounts. In mid-November, a series of storms battered the British Isles knocking down chimneys in London and sinking several ships off the coast. In fact, one of those downed chimneys almost claimed the life of Defoe as he walked down a London street. As the month drew to a close, just when it seemed Britains had endured enough foul weather, the biggest storm of them all knocked on British doors.

Some conjecture that the storm arose off the American coast but there is no proof, nor is there evidence to determine whether the storm had tropical origins or was extratropical throughout its lifetime. Perhaps it was a hybrid with tropical roots and extratropical reinvigoration as often happens in the North Atlantic late in the year. What we do know is the storm first slammed into the west Britain coast late on 25 November, a Thursday, around the entrance to the Bristol Channel.

From the little meteorological information available at the time, there is evidence that the main storm center moved north of Scotland while a secondary low-pressure cell formed to the southwest and moved across Britain from south Wales to the mouth of the Humber. A strong pressure gradient south of that secondary low drove hurricane-force winds across the English Channel and southern England. One contemporary barometric measurements, taken by the Reverend William Derham, FRS, read the equivalent of 973 mb in south Essex. Some suggest the center of the low might have plummeted as low as 950 mb as it crossed the Midlands.

In East Anglia, wind speeds were estimated in excess of 100 mph (160 km/h). In Whitstable, Kent, contemporary reports suggested a tornado/waterspout spun up and hoisted a ship out of the water, depositing it 800 ft (244 m) inland from the shore. It also plucked up a cow and deposited it high in a tree. Defoe reported the swirling, perhaps tornadic, winds snapped the body of an large oak tree.

After ravaging a 300-mile (480 km) swath across southern England and Wales, the storm moved across the North Sea late on the 27th and appears to have struck parts of France, northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden and perhaps even Finland before finally dissipating.

First Impacts

In the Channel, the storm battered the first Eddystone Light, constructed in 1696 and lit in 1698. Some weeks prior to the Great Storm, its builder Henry Winstanley had confidently expressed the wish that he could be on the reef during the greatest storm that ever blew under the face of heaven so he could see the wind's impact on his tower. Winstanley's wish came true, but woth the expected results. By the night of the 27th, the combined battering of wind and surf left no trace of the octagonal wooden tower remaining, none of the six occupants including Winstanley were ever seen again.


The Great Storm: Destruction of the first Eddystone Light House,
Chambers' Book of Days, London, 1869

At Chepstow, at the mouth of the Severn, the Rev. Thomas Chest penned a letter entitled "A Collection of the most remarkable Casualties and Disasters which happen'd in the late dreadful Tempest both by Sea and Land on Friday, the twenty-sixth of November, Seventeen Hundred and Three" In it, he detailed the storm's fury there:

"Sir, upon the evening of Friday, Nov. 26, 1703, the wind was very high, but about midnight it broke out with a more than wonted Violence, and so continued till near break of day. It ended a N.W. Wind, tho' about 3 in the Morning it was at S.W. The loudest cracks I observed of it, were somewhat before 4 of the Clock; we had here the common Calamity of Houses shatter'd and Trees thrown down."
"But the Wind throwing the Tyde very strongly into the Severn, and so into the Wye on which Chepstow is situated. And the Fresh in Wye meeting with a Rampant tide, overflowed the lower part of our Town. It came into several Houses about 4 foot [1.2 m] high, rather more; the greatest damage sustained in Houses was by the makers of Salt, perhaps their loss might amount to near £200."

At Bristol the storm surge flooded the town with water nearly 10 feet (3.1 m) above previous high tides. The surge channeled up the Severn took out the wooden bridge between Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire and the land south of Monmouthshire (called the Moors), a tract of land about 20 miles (32 km) long, was inundated by the surge flood. The flooding destroyed the hay and some cattle. Along the Severn, 15,000 sheep drowned at high tide.

"Gloucestershire, too, that borders upon Severn, hath suffered deeply on the Forest of Deane side, but nothing in comparison of the other shore; from about Harlingham [Arlingham] down to the mouth of Bristol River Avon, particularly from Aust Cliff to the Rivers Mouth (about 8 miles [12.8 km]) all that Flat called the Marsh, was drowned. They lost many Sheep and Cattle. About 70 Seamen were drown'd out of the Canterbury Storeship, and other Ships that were Stranded or Wreck'd," Chest remarked.

The tempest sent clouds of salty spray into the air all along the southern coast that were carried far inland. On the Isle of Wight, the spray coated fields with a snow-like incrustation of salt. For some time after the storm, sheep and cattle refused to graze on the salt-covered pastures. Similar scenes were repeated as far inland as Cranbrook in Kent, 17 miles (27.3 km) from the Channel waters.

As the storm raked across the British countryside, it produced an odd sight. Many windmills, whose blades were set whirling at high rates under the intense winds, lit up the Fens when they caught fire, the result of the frictional heating of their rapidly spinning wooden components. Elsewhere, the tempest blew down barns, outhouses, sheds and stables, whisked haystacks into the air, and tossed men and animals around.

The city of Bristol suffered damage exceeding £100,000. Cambridge, Beccles, Stowmarket, Kent and the Essex coast suffered terribly The steeple on the Stowmarket church fell before the onslaught. In Brighton, or Brighthelmston(e) as it was known then, the "Lower Toun", the fisherman's quarters, was washed away. An account written later in the century lists the destruction as follows: "one hundred and thirteen tenements, shops, capstan-places, stake-places, and cottages." The "Upper Toun" was also heavily damaged.

While the vast majority of fatalities occurred at sea, deaths on land across southern Britain totalled over a hundred. Bishop Kidder of Bath and Wells died when two chimneystacks fell on the bishop and his wife as they slept in bed. The winds also blew in part of the great west window in Wells Cathedral. Norfolk suffered many casualties, including Lady Elinor Drury and her niece Mary Fisher. They died laying side by side in bed when a stack of chimneys fell through the roof of their home at Riddlesworth.

Losses At Sea

By Friday the 26th, the storm unleashed an uppercut to south-central England, landing a knockout blow to Portsmouth and other coastal towns which Defoe described as looking "as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces." In the Channel and other waters, the fury of the gale caught the British fleet and many merchant ships at its mercy.

The British Navy had been engaged in the War of the Spanish Succession, and when the storm hit, three fleets lay under its fury in the English Channel. In the Solent, a channel between the main island and the Isle of Wight, many of these vessels and their attendant merchantmen and store ships lay at anchor between Cowes and Portsmouth. In the chaos of the storm that night, caused by the combination of wind, storm surge and the confines of the Solent channel, the ships were tossed and scattered. Daybreak of the 27th found a mass of damaged vessels strewn across the Solent and Spithead.

Off the Kent coast in the Downs, a four-mile (6.4-km) wide channel between the notorious Goodwin Sands and Deal, over 100 merchant ships and many naval vessels lay at anchor that night. With the dawn, 130 vessels had been reduced to rubble, including five ships of the Royal Navy; 1500 seamen and officers were lost including Rear-Admiral Basil Beaumont. The largest vessel lost was the 70-gun warship Stirling Castle.

No less than thirteen Royal Navy ships were lost, taking with them as many as 1500 sailors. The ships lost included:

  • The Restoration, lost on the Goodwin Sands, 387 men lost.
  • The Northumberland, lost on the Goodwin Sands, 220 men including twenty-four marines lost.
  • The Stirling Castle, lost on the Goodwin sands, 206 lost.
  • The Mary, lost on the Goodwin Sands, 269 men including Rear-Admiral Beaumont lost.
  • The Mortar-Bomb, lost on the Goodwin Sands, 65 lost.
  • The Eagle, lost on the Coast of Sussex, all her company saved.
  • The Resolution, lost on the coast of Sussex, all her company saved.
  • The Litchfield Prize, lost on coast of Sussex, all her company saved.
  • The Newcastle, lost at Spithead, 40 men were saved; the rest (193) drowned.
  • The Vesuvius, lost at Spithead, all her company saved.
  • The Reserve, lost at Yarmouth, 7 men saved; the rest (175) lost.
  • The Vanguard, lost in Chatham Harbour, with no men aboard.
  • The York, lost at Harwich, all her men saved except four.

One survivor from the Mary, Thomas Atkins had a remarkable story. A wave washed him from the Mary onto the Sterling Castle, which soon also sank. Another wave tossed Atkins from the wreck into one of Stirling Castle's lifeboats.


Resolution (foreground) holding station in a gale by Van de Velde the Younger
(courtesy National Maritime Museum Picture Library, London)

On the Thames, Defoe reported 700 ships lay crushed together in the Pool, a section of the river downstream of the London Bridge. The London Gazette reported that as many as 500 vessels were off the coast of Great Yarmouth when the storm struck, and many were in trouble or driven out to sea.

Not all vessels caught at sea during the tempest were lost, however. Many were blown out to open waters and some survived the winds and waves. A few reached the coasts of Denmark and Norway and eventually sailed back across the North Sea to Britain. The Revenge, after being forced off her anchors, fought the storm to the coast of Holland and eventually returned home to Britain. The storm also blew the Russel to Holland while the Dorset rode out the storm at sea.

HMS Association under Sir Cloudesley Shovell, and carrying Vice-Admiral Sir Stafford Fairborne, nearly foundered, but Shovell cut his main mast. Pushed out of the Thames Estuary by the winds, the Association crossed the North Sea to Gothenburg, Sweden and would not return home until the following year.

London Hit

London faced the force of the tempest late on the 26th and into the morning of the 27th. The heavy lead roof of Westminster Abbey rolled up like a parchment scroll and blew clear of the structure. Other London churches including St Mary Aldernay and St Michael lost spires and towers. Every church steeple in the city was damaged, and few houses rode out the storm unscathed. Near Moorfields, the great storm levelled a whole row of houses. Approximately 2000 large chimneys fell across London during the blow. The total estimated damage tallied not less than £2 million. Casualties numbered 21 dead and 200 severely injured, most by falling masonry.

While the howling storm winds wreaked havoc on the city's buildings, fire became a terrifying hazard as the winds fanned the flames and quickly spread the fire. When a fire did break out, local residents remained in their shelter from the winds and did not fight the fire as they would have under normal circumstances. Those that dared to venture out, or were forced onto the streets by advancing flames, faced being hit by flying debris and falling chimneys.

Driven by the winds, Thames water levels rose around London Bridge as wrecks piled up and dammed the waters flowing under it. The high waters flooded Westminster Hall to "a great height."

Reportedly. Queen Anne watched the destruction of the acacia, lime and elm trees in St James' Park from her window. She later sought shelter deep in the St James Palace as chimneys toppled and part of the roof collapsed.

Aftermath

When Londoners finally emerged from their homes, they were faced with scenes of destruction not known in the city since the Great Fire of 1666. For several days thereafter they wandered about the city gazing at the devastation and searching for friends and relatives.

The destruction wrought around the nation resulted in much work and profit for the bricklayers, tilers, glaziers and carpenters in the coming months, and the cost of labor doubled. The price of building tiles jumped to four to five times their pre-storm costs. Parliament debated how to replace the many naval vessels lost, wondering if stranded and rescued wrecks could be salvaged.

The total damage across the nation and to the British Navy was assessed in the range of £1-4 million. Human losses numbered 8000 to 9000, and perhaps as many as 15,000. An estimated 300,000 trees were split or uprooted. Four hundred windmills and eight to nine hundred houses were destroyed, and over a hundred churches severely damaged.

The impact of the storm caused a surge in English journalism as it was the first great weather event to be a national news story. Many broadsheets were printed detailing damage caused by the storm and telling the stories of those killed and those who escaped death. No individual did more than Daniel Defoe. He placed a series of ads in London papers through December asking for firsthand accounts of the storm and its effects. He received over 70 responses. Defoe compiled a number of these and other facts he gathered after touring the damage zones into a book The Storm, published in 1704. (The account is one of the few of his works not as yet available through projects such as the Gutenburg Project, but the volume has recently been reprinted by Penguin Books as a Penguin Classic.)

In that book, he puts forth a scheme for describing winds that predates, and has similarities to, the original Beaufort wind scale. Many of the terms for winds that he used came from mariners' logbooks, but he seems to have invented the terms top sail gale and a fret of wind.

The Storm appears to have influenced English literature for some time thereafter. It has been pointed out that the storm scene in Charles Dicken's David Copperfield (Chapter 55) is very similar to Defoe's accounts of the 1703 storm.

Finally, many believed that the storm was an act of God's retribution on Britain, punishment for a corrupt nation. In response to the great national tragedy, Queen Anne issued a proclamation for a national day of fast to be held on 19 January 1704 to pay respects to the privations and loss of life suffered by her subjects and to beseech God to forbear from sending another great storm.

Today, the Great Storm of 1703 still provides the benchmark by which all other storms to hit Great Britain are assessed.

Learn More From These Relevant Books
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Written by
Keith C. Heidorn, PhD, THE WEATHER DOCTOR,
November 1, 2007


The Weather Doctor's Weather Almanac: Britain's Great Storm of 1703
©2007, Keith C. Heidorn, PhD. All Rights Reserved.
Correspondence may be sent via email to: see@islandnet.com.

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