BRITAIN'S WORST STORM

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12735, 16 December 1935, Page 3

BRITAIN'S WORST STORM

* - FAMOUS GALE OF 1703. Britain is fortunate in its freedom from hurricanes and violent storms. The worst storm of which records are available swept Britain as long ago as November, 1703. It raged incessantly for seven days and nights. So appalling was the upheaval that people hid for days in their cellars, believing that the end of the world had come. In London roofs were blown off whole streets of houses, buildings were blown to the ground, and scores of people were buried in the ruins. Daniel Defoe records that he rode round the city and counted 2000 chimney stacks and 17,000 trees that had been hurled to earth. So great became the demand for tiles to repair damaged roofs that the prico rose from a guinea a thousand to .more than £6 a thousand. Hundreds of householders, and even public corporations, were compelled to mend their homes and buildings with straw and deal planks. Damage to the extent of £2,000,000 was done in London alone. “No pen can describe it, no tongue express it, no thought conceive it,” wrote Defoe. “Honor and confusion seized on all.” In the Thames shipping was reduced to matchwood. But it. was on the south coast that the hurricane expended its greatest fury. Hundreds of vessels were destroyed and crews were drowned, including a frigate with Admiral Beaumont aboard. The first Eddystorie Lighthouse, built in top-heavy style, like a Chinese pagoda, was swept away, with its architect and five of his friends. On the Goidwin Sands 200 marooned sailors stood crying piteously for rescue before the rising tide should engulf them. Only a few were saved by Customs boats commanded by the Mayor of Deal. The storm ceased abruptly, exactly a week after it had started. But for months afterwards London and the southern counties looked as if an earthquake had occurred.