"The force of the gale was principally and 

 most severely felt in Narragansett Bay in Hhode 

 Island. The wind swept the bay and Providence 

 suffered from its effects more than any other place. 

 From ten to half -past eleven o'clock it blew a 

 hurricane. About the wharves and lower part of 

 the town generally confusion reigned. High water 

 was about half -past eleven o'clock in the forenoon, 

 and the wind brought in the tide ten or twelve 

 feet above the /height of the usual spring tides, 

 and seven and a half feet higher than ever known 

 before, overflowing and inundating streets and 

 wharves. The vessels there were driven from their 

 moorings in the stream and fastenings at the wharves, 

 with terrible impetuousity, toward the great bridge 

 that connected the two parts of the town. The 

 gigantic structxire was swept away without (giving 

 a moment's check to the vessels' progress, and 

 they passed on to the head of the basin, not 

 halting until they were high up on the bank. 

 All the vessels were driven ashore, or totally 

 destroyed. There were wl-ecked in the. cove four 

 ships, nine brigs, seven schooners and fifteen 

 sloops. After the storm they lay high and dry, 

 five or six feet above high-water mark, in the 

 streets and gardens of the town. One sloop 

 stood upright in Pleasant Street before the door 

 of a Mr. Webb, and a ship was in the garden of 

 General Lippett. Nine of the vessels that were 

 driven ashore were successfully launched again, 

 but more than thirty were totally lost, 



"The storm raged vjith increasing violence, and 

 the water was rapidly rising and deliaging the lower 

 parts of the town. Wharves were being washed away, 

 stores and other buildings on them were about to 

 leave their foundations, and the water surged 

 around the houses of the people who resided in 

 the lower sections. Stores and dwelling houses 

 were seen to reel and totter for a few moments, 

 and then plunge into the deluge. A moment later 

 their fragments were blended with the wrecks of 

 vessels, some of which were on their sides, that 

 were passing with great r^idity and irresistible 

 impetuousity on the current to the head of the 

 cove, to join the wrecks already on the land. 



A-6 



