The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-24 00:00:00

•ere Storm and Floods in the North,

LOSS OF LIFE AND GREAT DESTRUC-
TION OF PROPERTY.
The Wick correspondent-of the Scotsman writes
This coast has this week been visited by one of the
most severe storms which we have experienced for
many years. Oa Wednesday evening a fresh breeze
of wind sprang up from the north-east, and con-
tinued to increase till midnight, when it burst forth
with terrifio fury, accompanied by torrents of rain,
raising a tremendous sea along the coast and in the
bay. Fortunately there were no boats at sea at the
time, else the consequences would have been terrible.
As it was,:however, an immense amount of damage
has been done on shore. The works at the new har-
bour, which have been carried on almost without
interruption for the last 12 months, have been sud-
denly brought to a stand still by the complete demo-
lition, in the course of a few hours, of the ponderous
wooden staging, which it has taken many months
to erect. The staging, which was constructed of
heavy logs strongly bound together by iron clasps,
and secured by chains and anchors, had been carried
seawards about 400 feet, about 80 feet of which was
added to it within the last week. It was some 40 or
50 feet wide, and had three or four lines of rails laid
on its surface for the locomotive and waggons to run
along with the stones necessary for the construction
of the breakwater. The work was so strongly fas-
tened and bound together that the contractors and
resident engineer had no fear of its ever giving way,
although those acquainted with Wick Bay had
grave doubts as to its being able to withstand
the fury of the winter storms on this exposed
coast. These fears, I regret to say, have been
fully realised. Early on Thursday morning the
waves began to dash over it, and in the course
of a few hours about 300 feet of the work was car.
ried away and strewed along the beach in broken
fragments. In order to give some idea of the force
of the waves, it may be mentioned that many of the
huge logs of which the work was constructed,which
were 2} feet long, were snapped in pieces, and the
rails and heavy iron bolts bent and twisted
as if they were pieces of wire. Many hun-
dreds of tons of stone, too, have been displaced
by the force of the storm and carried up to the beach,
several hundred yards distant. The loss entailed
by this most unfortunate disaster we have heard
variously at from £4,000 to £B,OOO, which, it is re-
ported, falls upon the British Fishery Society, and
not upon the contractors. It is a serious matter
for the town, too, as it will be the means of throw-
ing a large number of men idle, seeing that nothing
can be done without the staging, and that it is not
likely it will be again erected before spring. Fears
were entertained for the safety of the roads leading
to the quarries, which are constructed upon the
slope of the beach ; but the wind having veered
round more to the north in the course of the day
has been the means of running down the sea a
little ; so that with the exception of a piece of
the embankment which has been carried away
they are not likely to be seriously damaged.
The crops throughout the country will have
suffered severely from the fury of the storm.
A great quantity of corn is still in stock, and in the
upland districts a good deal of it is yet uncut, so
that the strong gale and heavy rains which have
literally deluged the fields and flooded all the straths
and low-lying districts will, I fear, leave a sad tale
behind it of ruin and disaster to many a poor farmer.
It is feared that from the suddenness and awful fury
of the storm tales of serious disasters at sea on the
north coast may yet be to tell. There has been no
intelligence received here to-day from Scrabster,
where the storm would be felt in all its terrible
force ; and fears are entertained for the safety of
several vessels known to be in that roadstead.
FLOOD IN THE GLEN OF ROTIIES.
The Elfin Courant of Friday says :—" We have
to record one of the most severe hurricanes that
has visited this part of the kingdom for many
years, the effects of which will no doubt be told
in tales of disaster for days to came. Rain
'began to fall on Wednesday afternoon about four
o'clock, with the wind from the northward, and,
as the afternoon advanced, a strong breeze turned
into a perfect hurricane, with an incessant torrent
of rain. 'this continued all Wednesday night with-
out intermission, and, with the exception of a few
hours on Thursday mo:ning,the storm has continued
to the present moment. Tne risers are in higher
flood than they have been since 1829, The Spey,
the Findhorn, the Lassie, and smaller streams are
roaring from bank to brae, and in many places they
are over their banks, and flooding the haughlands
along their courses. Much damage has been done.
The Linkwood Burn, as it is called, which rises in the
Manoch Hill, on the west side of the glen of Rothes,
came down on Thursday morning in a perfect tor-
rent, and carried away some 30 or 40 yards of the
railway at the w oollen manufactory in the Glen of
Rothes, completely intercepting all intercourse on
the line. When the goods train from Elgin went
up the glen at twelve o'clock, and came near the
mills, the driver saw a man standing on the line
waving a red flag on a pole, and soon discovered it
to be Mr. Hay, the miller, who was giving warning.
The train was stopped in time to prevent an acci-
dent. At the break made by the burn, Mr_ Hay
stood hours in the drenching rain to prevent an ac-
cident, and deserves the highest praise. The train
from Rothes was stopped by breaks in the line
before it got up to the woollen mill, and returned.
It is said that some days will be required to repair
the damage done to the line. The Lassie, as we
have said, has not been so flooded for 20 years.
Lossie-wynd, at the tan works, was impassable—.
ducks swimming half up the street, and people
compelled to go by North-street on their way to
and from Bishopmill. Many trees were seen pass-
ing down the torrent—even the Link wood Burn
brought down trees from the Glen of Rothes, show-
ing a terrible fall of rain from the hills, for the burn
when in its normal state is a mere streamlet.''
THE STORMS IN THE MORAY FIRTH.
The wind being from the northward, a truly tre-
mendous sea was rolling along the southern shore
of the Moray Firth the whole of Thursday. At
Lossiemouth it was impossible to face the storm
that raged with a violence which old fishermen said
had not been equalled for 30 years. The sea ap-
peared one unbroken sheet of white foam as far as
the eye could reach, The curling breakers extended
two miles out from the shore, to 12 fathoms water ;
and along the protection wall of the new basin the
spray was rising 30ft into the air. In the morning
a schooner was seen running up the Firth past Los•
siemouth, not far from the Sherries, and was ob
served to be struck by several tremendous seas.
She soon passed out of sight in the thick fog that
covered the foaming ocean, and none on this part of
the coast can tell her fate. She must have cleared
the promontory of Burghead, and we hope she
reached Cromarty. Reports in Lossiemouth had it
that a vessel belonging to Hamburg, laden with
herrings from Lybster, was wrecked near Gar.
mouth, but that all hands were saved,
At Buckie, at one o'clock on Thursday afternoon,
13 boats were missing, but three or four of these ran
into Burghead Bay, under shelter of the head, and
the hands got off. We hope all the rest are safe,
but the excitement in Buckie was intense, so many
lives being in jeopardy. The alarm of the relatives
of the missing seamen was increased tenfold, in con-
sequence of some boat helms and kits being washed
ashore to the eastward, indicating dis Aster. At
Cullen the gale was felt very severely. The Port-
knockie boats were overtaken by it at the haddock
fishing, but they all made the harbour, with the ex-
ception of two. One of these was dashed upon a rock,
and drawn out to sea again, but the crew succeeded
in ettering her to Craigenroan, a natural creek some
mass to the west, which has saved many a boat's
crew frotu a watery grave. The of her is still missing.
Thu Cullen boats, happily, were not out. On some
parts of the coast-aide between Buckle and Banff' it
as all but impossible to face the storm. The wind
was unrocfingfc-rea-attsittling, blowing down stacks,
breaking and uprooting trees.
FIATING BOATS LosT AND MISSING.
Early on Thursday morning a boat belonging to
Portessie, named the Laurel, was driven ashore at
Whitchills. She is said to be mantled by a crow of
nine men, six of them brothers, and all must have
perished, for the boat was cast ashore empty. No
doubt it had been swamped ramong the breakers.
This is a mciencholy ease, their being little hope of