A deadly storm is recorded in English history. The storm, which\noccurred in 1703, killed thousands of people.<\/p>\n
According to the Royal Meteorological Society, it began battering the\ncoast at The Downs on 24 November 1703 and did not abate until 2\nDecember. At its peak, wind speeds reached 120 mph.<\/p>\n
An estimated 8,000 people lost their lives. The Royal Navy suffered\nthe heaviest losses, with 13 ships destroyed and more than 1,500 sailors\ndrowned.<\/p>\n
The disaster was caused by an extreme, high-speed windstorm. At the\ntime, it was generally seen as an \u201cAct of God\u201d punishing the nation for\nits sins, prompting the government to designate 19 January 1704 as a\nnational day of fasting.<\/p>\n
The storm damaged all 120 church steeples in London. It tore the lead\nroof off Westminster Abbey and felled 4,000 trees in the New Forest.<\/p>\n
A historical eyewitness account<\/strong><\/p>\n The storm was recorded by a sailor named Thomas Atkins, who was 15 at\nthe time and serving aboard the warship HMS Mary.<\/p>\n He saw the storm\u2019s extraordinary force, which destroyed English\nwarships in the waters off The Downs.<\/p>\n Atkins was the sole survivor of the HMS Mary after living through two\nshipwrecks in a single night. He swam to HMS Stirling Castle, which had\nalso been driven on to a sandbank but had not yet sunk completely.<\/p>\n The death toll was high partly because most sailors at the time could\nnot swim, and many crew members drowned as soon as their ships broke\napart.<\/p>\n The storm at sea crippled ships\u2019 handling, damaged masts, dragged\nanchors and drove warships on to dangerous shallow sandbanks.<\/p>\n A lack of adequate food had left many sailors ill and exhausted\nbefore the storm struck, leaving them without the strength to control\ntheir ships.<\/p>",
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