WRECKS ON ALL OUR COASTS. 203 



bridge, and is a road, the tide flowing- several feet above the common course. The storm 

 continued till the 27th, about three in the afternoon; that by computation nigh thirty 

 merchant ships and vessels without masts are lost, and what men are lost is not known ; 

 three ships are missing, that we suppose men and all lost. None of her Majesty's ships 

 came to any harm : but the Cumberland breaking her anchor in a storm which happened 

 the 18th at night, lost another, which renders her incapable of proceeding with us till 

 supplied. I saw several trees and houses which are blown down. Your humble servant, 



" Jos. SOANES." 



The disasters caused by this terrible gale extended over the English coasts. At Bristol 

 the tide filled the merchants' cellars, spoiling 1,000 hogsheads of sugar, 1,500 hogshead* 

 of tobacco, and any quantity of other produce, the damage being estimated at 100,000. 

 Eighty people were drowned in the marshes and river. Among the shipping casualties, 

 the Canterbury store-ship went ashore, and twenty-five men were drowned from her. The 

 Severn overflowed the country, doing great damage at Gloucester; and 15,000 sheep were 

 drowned on the levels and marshes. Four merchant ships were lost in Plymouth Roads, and 

 most of the men were drowned. At Portsmouth a number of vessels were blown to sea, and 

 some of them never heard of more. About a dozen ships were driven from our coasts to 

 Holland, the crews, for the most part, being saved. At Dunkirk, twenty-three or more 

 vessels were dashed to pieces against the pier-head. 



Mr. Peter Walls, master or chief lighthouse-keeper of the Spurn Light at the mouth 

 of the Humber, was present on the 26th of November, the fatal night of the storm. He 

 thought that his lighthouse must have been blown down, and the tempest made the fire in it 

 burn so fiercely that " it melted down the iron bars, on which it laid, like lead/' so that 

 they were obliged when the fire was nearly extinguished to put in fresh bars, and re-kindle 

 the fire, keeping it up till the morning dawn, when they found that some six or seven-and- 

 twenty sail of ships were driving helplessly about the Spurn Head, some having cut, and 

 others broken their cables. These were a part of two fleets then lying in the Humber, having- 

 put in there by stress of weather a day or two before. Three ships were driven on an island 

 called the Don. The first no sooner touched bottom than she completely capsized, turning 

 keel up ; strange to say, out of six men on board, only one was drowned, the other five being 

 rescued by the boat of the second ship. They landed at the Spurn Lighthouse, where 

 Mr. Walls got them good fires and all the comforts they needed. The second ship, having 

 nobody on board, was driven to sea and never seen or heard of more. The third broke 

 up, and next morning some coals that had been in her were all that was to be seen. Of 

 the whole number of vessels in the Humber, few, if any, were saved. 



Defoe estimates that 150 sea-going vessels of all sorts were lost in this terrific gale; 

 but this is, in all probability, a very low estimate. And it is as nothing to the fearful loss of 

 life, which amounted to 8,000 souls. 



The townspeople of Deal, in particular, were blamed for their inhumanity in leaving- 

 many to their fate who could have been rescued. Boatmen went off to the sands for booty, 

 some of whom would not listen to poor wretches who might have been saved. Many 

 unfortunate shipwrecked persons could be seen, by the aid of glasses, walking on the Goodwin 



