The New Hand-Book to Lowestoft and Its EnvironsAnonymous
History
The New Hand-Book to Lowestoft and Its Environs
Anonymous
Lowestoft (England) -- Description and travel
“The dreadful storm on Wednesday the 19th instant, began about one
o’clock in the morning, and continued with increasing violence till
five; when the wind suddenly changed from the south-west to the
north-west, and for two hours raged with a fury that was hardly ever
equalled. Anchors and cables proved too feeble a security for the
ships, which instantly parting from them, and running on board each
other, produced a confusion, neither to be described nor conceived:
not a few immediately foundered; others were dismasted, and none
escaped unhurt. At daylight a scene of the most tragic distress was
exhibited. Those who first beheld it assert, that no less than
eighteen ships were on the sand before this place at one and the same
time; and many others were seen to sink. Of those on the sand,
one-half were entirely demolished, with their crews, before nine
o’clock; the rest were preserved a few hours longer: but this
dreadful pause served only to aggravate the destruction of the
unhappy men who belonged to them, who betook themselves to the masts
and rigging. These continually breaking, eight or ten were not
unfrequently seen to perish at a time, without the possibility of
being assisted. Fifteen only, about two in the afternoon, were taken
off one of the wrecks; and about as many more were saved by taking to
their boats, or getting on board other ships when they boarded each
other. It is impossible to collect with certainty how many lives, or
how many ships, were lost in this terrible hurricane. Twenty-five at
least, perhaps thirty ships, and two hundred men, do not seem to be
an exaggerated account. This, indeed, is too small a calculation, if
credit is to be given to one of the seamen, who declares he saw six
vessels sink not far without the Stanford, among which was a large
ship bound for Lisbon, with sixty or seventy passengers on board.
One or two of the ships which are lost belong to Yarmouth, and one to
Plymouth; but the generality are colliers, and belong to Sunderland,
Shields, and other places in the north.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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