Great Storm of 1703 The Great Storm of 1703 was the most severe storm or natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain . Observers at the time recorded barometric readings as low as 973 millibars ( measured by William Derham in south Essex ) , but it has been suggested that the storm may have deepened to 950 millibars over the Midlands . Damage . At sea , many ships ( many returning from helping the King of Spain fight the French in the War of the Spanish Succession ) were wrecked , including HMS " Resolution " at Pevensey and on the Goodwin Sands , HMS " Stirling Castle " , HMS " Northumberland " , HMS " Mary " , and HMS " Restoration " , with about 1 , 500 seamen killed particularly on the Goodwins . Between 8 , 000 and 15 , 000 lives were lost overall . The first Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed on 27 November 1703 ( Old Style ) , killing six occupants , including its builder Henry Winstanley ( John Rudyard was later contracted to build the second lighthouse on the site ) . The number of oak trees lost in the New Forest alone was 4 , 000 . On the Thames , around 700 ships were heaped together in the Pool of London , the section downstream from London Bridge . HMS " Vanguard " was wrecked at Chatham . HMS " Association " was blown from Harwich to Gothenburg in Sweden before way could be made back to England . In London , the lead roofing was blown off Westminster Abbey and Queen Anne had to shelter in a cellar at St . James ' s Palace to avoid collapsing chimneys and part of the roof . There was extensive and prolonged flooding in the West Country , particularly around Bristol . Hundreds of people drowned in flooding on the Somerset Levels , along with thousands of sheep and cattle , and one ship was found 15 miles inland . At Wells , Bishop Richard Kidder was killed when two chimneystacks in the palace fell on the bishop and his wife , asleep in bed . This same storm blew in part of the great west window in Wells Cathedral . Major damage occurred to the south - west tower of Llandaff Cathedral at Cardiff . Beliefs and response . The storm , unprecedented in ferocity and duration , was generally reckoned by witnesses to represent the anger of God — in recognition of the " crying sins of this nation . " The government declared 19 January 1704 a day of fasting , saying it " loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of our people . " It remained a frequent topic of moralizing in sermons well into the nineteenth century . Literary . The Great Storm also coincided with the increase in English journalism , and was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale . Special issue broadsheets were produced detailing damage to property and stories of people who had been killed . Daniel Defoe produced his full - length book , " The Storm " , published in July 1704 , in response to the calamity , calling it " the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England . " He wrote : " No pen could describe it , nor tongue express it , nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it . " Coastal towns such as Portsmouth " looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces . " He thought the destruction of the sovereign fleet was a punishment for their poor performance against the Catholic armies of France and Spain during the first year of the War of the Spanish Succession . Thirteen ships lost in the Royal Navy . The Royal Navy was badly affected , losing thirteen ships , and upwards of fifteen hundred seamen drowned . Lamb ( 1991 ) claimed 10 , 000 seamen were lost in one night , a far higher figure , about 1 / 3 of all the seamen in the British Navy . narrowly escaped a similar fate . Over 40 merchant ships were lost .