The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-03 00:00:00

THE RECENT STORM,

The cable warning from the other side of the
Atlantic presaging a severe storm "crossing N. 45,"
which was expected to arrive on the British and Nor-
wegian coasts between the 23rd and 25th, attended
by south, veering west gales, has, like many which
have preceded it, been warranted by the cyclonic
storm which prevailed generally over the British
Isles during a considerable part of Saturday and
Siinday. The forecasts for Saturday for the south
of England (London and Channel), "westerly winds,
moderate ; cooler and fair at first, then south-
westerly winds, moderate; more cloudy and showery,"
were certainly justified as far as the early part
of the day was concerned. A lovelier morning
for the latter end of November has probably not been
expeTienced for at least a quarter of a century, the sun
towards midday especially shining with almost
summer's warmth in a cloudless sky. Between twelve
and one, however, the sky became overcast, the wind
gradually continued to freshen until five o'clock, 'a hen
it blew half a gale from the south-west, accompanied
by a very heavy rainfall. Thence the storm increased
in force till between twelve and one on Sunday morn-
ing, when a perfect hurricane prevailed in the metro-
polis. Hundreds of h3uses were entirely or par-
tially unroofed and immense destruction of pro-
perty ensued. The scenes at this hour in many
parts of the metropolis are reported to have been
of the most exciting and distressing character,
frightened and in numerous cases injured persons
rushing into the streets on the first sounds of falling
chimneys or tiles, while the lights in almost every
house evidenced plainly that to many sleep was out
of the question. As usual, the telegraph wires were
blown down in various parts. Thera was little abate-
ment of the storm during the remainder of the night
and throughout the whole of Sunday severe squalls,
accompanied at intervals with ram, snow, sleet, and
hail were exiierienced.

Inquiries instituted in various parts of London show
that the damage occasioned to house property is nearly
as great as in the memorable gale of last month,
scarcely a street escaping without a record of destruc-
tion of some kind. About forty persons have been
treated at the principal hospitals for injuries, and
the police records give a long list of casualties,
some of which it is feared will prove fatal. During
the night a remarkable scene was witnessed in the
Pool, where the tiers of vessels were in many
parts moored together for safety with thick hawsers.
In the height of the gale, several vessels got
adrift and came into collision with others, and were
eventually only secured again with great difficulty.
In all parts of the Pool, and in the docks, much
i damage s reported to the vessels, and it is estimated
that quite fifty barges, many coal-laden, have sunk.
So great was the force of the wind, that in various
parts of the river there was not sufficient depth of
water for navigating purposes, and some of the,
steamers went aground. The record of shipping dis-
asters and loss of life already received at Lloyd's is a
long one, and a couple of days will, it is feared, add to
it very considerably.

-
On Saturday night soon after five o'clock a portion
of the glass roof of the Royal Aquarium was blown
away by the force of the wind, and further injury to
the roof was done between ten and eleven the same
night. No one was injured.

Owing to the fury of the wind and waves, the new
works in connexion with the extension of the pier at
Folkestone were almost entirely washed away, and
considerable damage was done to the pier generally.
-

On Saturday morning the Newhaven Lifeboat
Michael Henry was launched and proceeded towards a
tug and brigantine which were in danger, and as she
approached the harbour on her return the boat was
struck by a tremendous sea and oapsized. The boat
being constructed on the self-righting principle, no
great alarm was felt by those on shore until it was
observed that the boat was floating bottom upwards
with several of the crew clinging to her. The boat
drifted against the eastern pier and, striking with
great violence, her sides were stove in. The masts
then fell out and the boat righted. Those on shore
assisted the crew to land, most of them being in an
exhausted state. One man was conveyed to the
London and Paris Hotel on a stretcher, by direction
of Dr. Dalton, but had sufficiently recovered in the
evening to proceed to his home.
Between two and three o'clock on Sunday morning,
when the gale was at its height, the timber landing.
stage outside the pier at Ventnor, which has just been
completed, was carried away, and the floating timbers
soon broke the cast-iron columns of the pier head, and
completely destroyed that part of the pier, including
the ornamental wind screen erected on the pier head.
The greater part of the pier, however, remains un-
injured.
Several shipping casualties were reported at Great
Yarmouth. A fine brig, named the Countess of
Harwich, from Sunderland for Weymouth with coals,
parted from her anchors while in the Roads, and
drifted ashore on the north beach. There were only
three men on board, the others having gone ashore
for provisions a few hours previously. Those on board
took to the rigging, and burnt flares for assistance.
The Yarmouth Coastguard were quickly on the spot
with the rocket apparatus, and after several hours'
work the men were rescued and received at the sailors'
home. The vessel will become a total wreck. Several
large steamers were obliged to anchor in the Roads
owing to the weather.

A Margate telegram dated Monday, states :—The
tug India to-day brought in five men belonging to a
fishing•smack from Brightlingsea which had gone on
to the Sands. They had spent the night in the rigging,
and were losing consciousness when a steamer took
them off and transferred them to the tug. Two bodies
were washed ashore at Broadstairs this morning, and
two at Ramsgate. A schooner, after collision in the
Downs, was making for Ramsgate Harbour when
she ran into the east pier and sank. Two men
were drowned. A large vessel sank in the Downs on
Saturday night, opposite Deal, and it is said that
several of the crew were drowned.
On Sunday afternoon there was an extraordinary
high tide at Kirkwall, people having to leave their
houses until the water receded. Workshops, byres,
were inundated. At Junction-road the gas-
Works very nearly had their furnace fires extinguished.
A south-westerly gale, accompanied by a tremend-
ous fall of rain and lightning, raged at Plymouth with
fearful violence through Saturday night and Sunday
morning, preventing three mail steamers from quitting
the port and one from entering it.
On Tuesday several of the finest steamers afloat
reached Plymouth in a disabled condition, having in
some instances barely escaped foundering during the
recent suecession of gales. In the evening the Ham-
burg-American steamer Lessing, which left Havre ten
days ago for Nslw York with over 800 passengers came
into Plymouth. Soon after her departure the passengers,
encountered fearful storms, and the third day her
rudder-post gave way, and the steamer began to roll.
As soon as the damage was discovered, the whole of the
emigrants and the cabin passengers were ordered below.
They were not acquainted with the gravity of the situa-
tion, however, and thus a dangerous panic was avoided,
although great excitement prevailed. The hurri-
cane continued, and tremendous seas ran. The ship
was brought to, while chains were attached to the
rudder to steady it. These were carried away, and
then wire ropes were passed over the stern and secured
round the rudder. These being hauled taut, the crew
were able to steer the steame__,r, and she rode head to
wind, shipping great seas. During that night the
vessel lay to, and the following day a double wire rope
was passed over the stern to render the rudder addi-
tionally secure. The captain then bore up for Ply-
mouth, which was 700 miles distant. No serious in-
jury was sustained by anyone except the quarter-
master, who is not expected to live. The Lessing will
have to go into dock to be repaired.
The effects of the gale of Sunday were very dis-
astrous at Dover. Two men had a narrow escape
with their lives. Three men put off to a steamer to
assist her into the harbour. One man was put on
board the steamer, while the other two remained
in their punt, which was being towed by the
steamer. On nearing the harbour a sea caught
them and carried their boat under the stern of the
steamer, the result being that she fouled the steamer's
propeller and was at once upset, both men being
thrown into the sea. Considerable excitement ensued
on shore, but a boat was put off, and succeeded with
a great deal of difficulty in reaching and rescuing the
men, although they were in a very exhausted condi-
tion. The violence of the wind did considerable
damage to some of the houses in the town, especially
on the sea front, where the sea dashed over the
promenade with great force, carrying large quantities
of stones with it. At East Cliff the stone jetty sus-
tained extensive injury, the sea having made a clean
breach right through it, the lower part of it at the
present time being a perfect wreck. At the Ad-
miralty Pier a large quantity of loose material, and
some of the scaffolding at the turret, in connexion
with the preparations for raising the 80-ton guns
on to the fort, were washed away. Among these was
an immense structure upon which the guns were
to rest. It is marked as weighing sixty tons.
This was washed off the pier, arid subsequently came
ashore about a mile from the pier, where it was
dragged up on to the promenade by a large fatigue
party of the military. The sea got into the turret
and did considerable damage to the machinery. In
the engine-room there is reported to have been at one
time as much as 'lift. of water.
During the gale on Sunday morning guns were fired
from the St. Nicholas lightship denoting that a vessel
was in distress off Great Yarmouth. Owing to the
weather and the heavy sea it was not considered ex-
pedient to launch a lifeboat, and the signals were un-
answered. It was ascertained, however, that a vessel,
supposed to be a schooner, was observed to strike on
Seroby sands, and nothing more was seen of her.
There is little doubt that she was lost on that danger-
ous part of the coast with all hands.
Late on Saturday night, on Booth Dean, near
Halifax, Mr. John Kenworthy, who had been carrier
horn Rishworth to Halifax for many years, was
drowned with his wife and daughter in attempting to
cross a stream flowing down the valley.
The barque (Jaduceus, of North Shields, Captain
Searle, hound from Newcastle for Salerno with a cargo
of coal was wrecked early on Monday morning on
Chichester Folds during a heavy gale from the south-
west. The crew of ten men were saved from the
wreck at daylight by the Bembridge lifeboat belong-
ing to the National Lifeboat Institution. When the
lifeboat reached her they found that she was full of
water, the seas breaking continually over her, and the
crew clustered for safety on the poop deck round the
stump of the mizenmast.
During the late terrible gale the Ramsgate lifeboat
Bradford and the harbour steamer proceeded to the
assistance of the brig Innsfal, of Dublin, which had
gone on the Brake Sand. They rescued her and her
crew of eight men from a position of great peril.
After they had been brought safely into harbour the
lifeboat proceeded out again and rescued four men
from the brig Albi6n' of Portsmouth, which had gone
whore on the sands to the eastward of the pier and
afterwards became a wreck.
It was reported at Dover on Monday that a large
vessel foundered on Sunday bets een that place and
)eal with a crew of 19 hands.
Early on Sunday morning the French fishing lugger
Frank Picard, of Treport, Captain Augustin, went
ashore at Jury's Gap Station, between Rye -and


Dungeness. The rocket line was fired over, but it
fouled and proved useles. Two of the crew and a boy
succeeded in getting ashore. The remaining four
men took to the rigging, but ultimately the mast
broke and they were all drowned.
The Warrior, British barque, with mineral ore
ballast, and with 1,547 bales of esparto fibre on board,
was totally wrecked at Horns during a gale on
November. Out of a crew of nineteen five men were
drowned.

The new steamer Claremont, which parted from
her tug during the storm of Tuesday in last week
while being 'towed from the port of Shields to
Kirkcaldy, to receive her machinery, was towed into
the Firth of Forth on Monday by the steamer North
Eastern, of Hull, which fell in with the Claremont in
the North Sea, after she had drifted three hundred
miles from land. Two thousand pounds reward had
been offered for the recovery of the Claremont.
AlthonA a large number of fishing boats sailing out
of Great Yarmouth harbour returned to port soon after
the commencement of the recent gale, there were
many which proceeded on their voyages, and for these
great anxiety is felt. Two vessels have arrived re-
porting loss of hands. The John and Frederick came in
on Monday, and the master reported that a heavy sea
struck the boat on Saturday night, knocking over-
board one of the crew, named Russell, who was drowned,
while another man had an arm broken. The vessel
itself was seriously damaged. The bulwarks were
smashed, the capstan taken out of its position, and
the small boat nearly knocked to pieces. Several
fishing craft have arrived at Great Yarmouth with
loss of nets. The lugger Henry and Elizabeth has put
into Lowestoft with the loss of one hand, a yourg
man named Shepherd, of Mundesley, who was, it is
thought, either washed or blown off the deck on Sun-
day Morning during the storm. The Jabelle also lost
her boat and several others their nets. The smack
Surprise, Stockman master, had her decks swept and
gear cleared off, the crew narrowly escaping with their
lives.

A terrific gale from the South-west burst upon Paris
about nine o'clock on Saturday evening, and continued
with unabated violence all through the night. At
times the force of the wind was extraordinary.
Chimney-pots and tilings suffered severely, buthappily
no accident of any serious character have as yet been
reported. The storm was, of course, more felt in the
exposed country, where many houses were partially
unroofed and numbers of trees blown down. The
English mail did not make its appearance until
late in the evening, and Sunday morning's letters were
not delivered until past midday.