The Great Storm of 1703

"No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it". These were the writer Daniel Defoe's words after he had witnessed what was arguably the greatest storm of all. From midnight until dawn a 'perfect hurricane' raged across the south of England such that in the grey and feeble first light "nobody could believe the hundredth part they saw".

A series of gales had swept Britain from the 19th November [Old Style Calendar]. Defoe himself, almost lost his life in a London street when a chimney plummeted to the ground close to him. The climax came on the night of the 26-27th November , probably as a result of a rapidly deepening secondary low moving north east from South Wales to the Humber in the circulation of a parent depression north of Scotland. A very intense pressure gradient developed on its southern flank. Contemporary barometric readings from observers such as the Reverend Derham FRS gave a reading of 973 millibars in south Essex but it may have been below 950 millibars as it crossed the Midlands.

The storm struck first in the West Country and right in its path was the newly constructed Eddystone Lighthouse. Its creator and builder Henry Winstanley was actually there in residence completing additions to the structure. Some weeks beforehand he had made it known that he wished he could be on the reef in the greatest storm that ever blew under the face of heaven so he would see what effect it would have on his building. He did not have to wait long.

The following day Defoe saw 700 ships between Shadwell and Limehouse "most crushed together" with one boat rammed up and over another. On the Isle of Wight spray from the tumultuous seas covered fields with a snow like incrustation of salt rendering whole pastures inedible to sheep and cattle. Thousands of trees toppled in the New Forest and back at the Eddystone after the storm had abated visitors found not a stanchion of the lighthouse remaining nor any trace of Winstanley.

Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces". So much water had been forced into the Severn estuary that a huge flood inundated much of Bristol with water nearly 3 metres above previous high tides.

Off Cowes and Portsmouth these mighty vessels lay at anchor along with attendant merchantmen and store ships. In a veritable maelstrom brought about by the combined effects of hurricane force winds, high tides and the turbulent nature of the waters confined between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, ships were scattered and overwhelmed. Daylight revealed a mass of stricken vessels in the Solent and Spithead.

It was even worse in the 'Downs', a four mile wide channel between the notorious Goodwin Sands and Deal off the Kent coast. On that fateful night there were over 100 merchant ships and a number of naval vessels at anchor. By dawn many had been smashed to pieces and 1500 seaman had lost their lives.

Overall the number killed ranged from 8,000 to 15,000 along the whole coastline and the North Sea where some vessels were even blown to Sweden including Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flagship The Association.

There were those who profited from the event, none more so than the tilers, bricklayers and glaziers whose wages trebled. Scarce a house was spared any damage.

In London the Queen herself had taken shelter in a cellar under St James Palace as chimneys toppled and part of the roof collapsed. She was later to issue a proclamation for a national day of fast on January 19th 1704 to pay respects to the privations and loss of life suffered by her subjects.