Great Storm of 1703: The Hurricane That Struck England

The Great Storm of 1703 was a violent windstorm that swept across southern England, Wales and the English Channel on the night of 26–27 November 1703 (7–8 December in the Gregorian calendar). It sank or wrecked hundreds of ships, including much of a Royal Navy squadron off the Kent coast, destroyed the first Eddystone Lighthouse and damaged buildings and woodlands across the country. With an estimated 8,000–15,000 deaths, it is regarded as the most severe storm recorded in British history.

Background

Britain was at war with France in the War of the Spanish Succession, and many warships and merchant ships were assembled in coastal anchorages. A squadron under Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell had just returned from the Mediterranean and was anchored in the Downs, the sheltered roadstead off Deal in Kent.

Strong westerly gales had blown across the country for roughly two weeks before the main storm. Modern meteorologists, using contemporary weather records, think a very deep Atlantic depression crossed Wales and northern England into the North Sea on the night of 26–27 November, bringing the strongest winds to the south of its track.

What happened

The wind rose sharply on the evening of 26 November and peaked in the early hours of the 27th. Over southern England, gusts were probably of hurricane strength. Contemporaries described the noise, the collapse of chimneys and the fear that the world was ending.

At sea, the damage was catastrophic. In the Downs, several warships were driven onto the Goodwin Sands, including the Stirling Castle, Northumberland, Restoration and Mary. Rear-Admiral Basil Beaumont died aboard the Mary. In total the Royal Navy lost 13 ships and around 1,500 seamen. Hundreds of merchant ships were wrecked or damaged in ports and anchorages, and on the Thames around 700 vessels were piled up in the Pool of London.

Off Plymouth, the first Eddystone Lighthouse, a wooden tower completed in 1698 on a dangerous reef, disappeared entirely. Its designer, Henry Winstanley, had gone out to make repairs and was killed with the keepers.

On land, thousands of chimney stacks fell in London alone, roofs were stripped of lead, and church spires and windmills collapsed. At Wells, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Richard Kidder, and his wife were killed when a chimney stack fell through the roof of the Bishop’s Palace. A storm surge flooded the Severn estuary and the Somerset Levels, drowning people and livestock. Very large numbers of trees were blown down, and Defoe reported thousands lost in individual estates and forests.

Scientists of the day took a close interest. The clergyman and natural philosopher William Derham kept barometer readings at Upminster in Essex, and his records show the pressure falling to a very low level during the night. They are among the earliest instrumental observations of a major British storm and later helped meteorologists reconstruct its path.

The storm also struck the Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark, where ships were wrecked and coastal areas flooded. Because few systematic records were kept outside Britain, the full death toll across northern Europe is unknown, and the commonly quoted figures refer mainly to Britain and its waters.

Response

The government provided relief for the widows and families of seamen lost in the storm. Queen Anne proclaimed a day of public fasting and prayer for 19 January 1704. Many preachers interpreted the disaster as a divine warning, and sermons on the “great storm” were preached for decades afterwards.

Daniel Defoe, recently released from prison, placed advertisements asking for eyewitness reports. He combined them with his own experiences in London to publish The Storm in July 1704. Its systematic use of accounts from many places has led some to call it one of the first works of modern journalism.

Consequences

The loss of men and ships was a serious blow to the Royal Navy in wartime, though it recovered quickly: in the summer of 1704 the fleet supported the capture of Gibraltar. The destruction drove up prices for building materials such as roof tiles and lead, and the loss of mature oaks affected the supply of shipbuilding timber.

A new Eddystone Lighthouse, designed by John Rudyerd, was completed in 1709. Its successors, including John Smeaton’s stone tower of 1759, became landmarks of lighthouse engineering.

Timeline

• 1703, mid-November: Persistent westerly gales blow across Britain.
• 1703, 26 November, evening: The wind rises sharply across southern England and Wales.
• 1703, 27 November, early hours: The storm peaks; warships are wrecked on the Goodwin Sands and the Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed.
• 1704, 19 January: A national day of fasting is held.
• 1704, July: Defoe publishes The Storm.
• 1709: Rudyerd’s replacement Eddystone Lighthouse is completed.

Why it matters

The Great Storm remains the benchmark for extreme weather in British history. It showed the vulnerability of a seafaring nation to the weather, prompted one of the earliest attempts to gather a nationwide picture of a disaster from eyewitnesses, and is still compared with later storms such as the Great Storm of 1987.