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Records show that the largest concentration of ships
was off the coast of Great Yarmouth where a report of
the London Gazette suggested that up to 500 vessels
were sheltering, in trouble, or “drove off to
sea”.
Orders had also been issued from the Admiralty for vessels
to search for the famous mariner Sir Cloudesley Shovell,
who had already been reported missing.
Shovell, who was born at Cockthorpe in North Norfolk,
was eventually found safe. He died in 1707.
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| Victims of the storm – inside Riddlesworth
Church showing the memorial stone to Mary Fisher,
‘whose soul took her flight to heaven in ye
furious hurricane’ of 1703. The full memorial
is seen, below. |
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Not all the vessels had been sunk. Many of those blown
out to sea reappeared on the coast of Denmark or Norway.
Some eventually managed to struggle back across the
North Sea to British ports but others were never seen
again.
Mr Brayne picks up on G M Trevelyan’s England
in the Age of Queen Anne, who summarises the storm as
“without rival in the recorded history of our
island”.
Yet, according to Trevelyan, by December 16 “England
was herself again”. But the loss of property and
shipping was immense.
The Navy enlisted as many carpenters and joiners as
they could to rebuild the country’s fleet before
enemies could take advantage of the weakened defences.
Condemned men and prisoners of war were offered in an
attempt to replace crews lost in the disaster. Special
services were held in memory of the dead and a disaster
fund was started.
London did not escape lightly either. At the height
of the storm many Londoners had to choose between staying
in their shaking homes or running outdoors and risk
being hit by flying debris. Falling chimneys accounted
for a number of casualties and every one of the 120
church steeples in the capital was damage.
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Sir Cloudesley Shovell survived.
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It is said that Queen Anne stood at a window and watched
as the acacias, limes and elms in St James’ Park
were torn up with the savagery of the wind.
However, over the last three centuries, historians seem
not to have picked up in detail on the storm of 1703
and, according to Martin Brayne, it is not difficult
to see why.
“In the event, no great diplomatic or military
consequences can be ascribed to it, it caused no social
revolution and sparked no major economic crisis. It
was a natural phenomenon which came and went, killed
a lot of people, and caused a great deal of temporary
disruption but was of no lasting significance.”
Yet 1703 still stands as a landmark in the meteorological
history of the last few hundred years. But what is it
that made the Great Storm of 1703 so ferocious?
Jim Bacon, managing director of Weatherquest based at
the University of East Anglia in the School of Environmental
Sciences, says that fierce storms moving across the
British Isles throughout autumn and winter are not that
unusual.
But he adds: “The 1703 storm was in a class of
its own in terms of strong winds it brought with it.
It was broadly comparable with the Great Storm of October
1987 and was probably formed in a similar way.”
It brought with it a prolonged period of unsettled weather,
storms, gales and high seas that affected the British
Isles and southern North Sea across to the coast of
northern Denmark.
There was a warm front of air from a hurricane from
the West Indies that had travelled along the coast of
Florida and out into the Atlantic before hitting England.
This clashed with cold polar air and the scene was set
for the devastation that followed. Strong winds battered
the whole of the country and a North Sea surge raised
tides by about eight feet, causing flooding.
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| Martin Brayne’s modern account was published
earlier this year. |
There were other storms, which have lashed Norfolk
over the last millennium. In 1362 part of Norwich Cathedral
spire was blown down and more damage caused in 1713.
Severe gales caused damage in 1897, 1908 and 1943.
It is the devastation of 1953 and 1987 that left the
biggest imprint on the last century, the latter recalled
after weathermen famously pooh-poohed the idea that
there was a storm on the way and consequently misled
the nation, giving homeowners a false sense of security.
What followed was one of the worst recorded storms,
causing £1.5bn worth of damage nationally. Norfolk
was left without power, hundreds of trees were blown
down and wind speeds in excess of 100mph ravaged the
county.
But of 1703, Mr Bacon said: “The accounts we have
put it in a category of severity alongside the 1987
storm, possibly slightly worse.” He urged caution
over making comparisons along the lines of casualties
and damage caused.
“Nowadays, communication about the weather is
so much more effective so there would not be a situation
like this where the navies of the world would not be
aware of what was coming.
“In 1703, other than the knowledge and experience
of ship’s captains, the crews would not have known
this was coming. They may have read the sky and were
expecting gales but not necessarily have known it was
going to be as severe was it was.
“If ships had know it was coming, they would have
sought shelter sooner. There was also a huge amount
of damage to infrastructure over southern Britain, damage
to normal dwelling houses, civic buildings, cathedrals
and churches.
“It is a case of looking at a comparison between
how things were done then and how they are now; building
science has advanced phenomenally and buildings now
are more able to stand up to that sort of storm. Roofs
then, for example, were thatched.”
With the storms that preceded the night of November
26/27, some of them could have weakened the structures
that were eventually destroyed in the Great Storm.
Despite these qualifications, 1703 remains for meteorologists
and historians a benchmark storm of modern times.
“It is up there with the biggest,” said
Mr Bacon. Back
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