The Unbelievable Destruction of The Great Storm of 1703
A butcher bill that almost defies imagination
On the evening of December 7th, 1703, author Daniel Defoe was sitting in his home pondering the state of the poor weather which had been plaguing England for the past couple of weeks. Wind and rain had been pounding England for days on end and it seemed as though there would be no end in sight to the dreary state of affairs.
It was on that night, that Defoe glanced over at his barometer and was puzzled to see that the mercury within had dropped to a point lower than he had ever seen it before. In fact, the reading was so low that his only conclusion was that his children must have tampered with his instruments when he was not looking.
Unbeknownst to Defoe at the time, the barometer was accurate and was warning of a powerful storm which was moving onshore. The resulting winds were so powerful that they blew fish straight out of many ponds that dotted the countryside. Defoe would stay up that night absolutely transfixed by the power of the storm and would be compelled afterwards to write a detailed account of the event.
The storm
For a violent period of about twelve hours England was pounded by torrential rain and powerful winds. According to the document, A Letter for…
