“Dreadful Effects of the Late Tempest”….The “Western Flying Post, Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury and General Advertiser for Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall” made much of its reports of the great storm of November 1824 and the associated tidal wave which swept far inland.
“We have rarely had a more melancholy duty to perform than the recital of the tremendous effects of the gale of Monday night last” began the account in the weekly newspaper of November 29th. “A tempest teeming with more frightful terrors is scarcely within the memory of man.” The storm beginning at 4 a.m. on November 22 appears to have come from the SSW direction and to have been accompanied at times by rain, lightning and thunder.
The pier at the entrance of Weymouth harbour was demolished by the sea, and the quays inundated. The esplanade was destroyed, and a stone bench carried over 200 yards. Lower apartments were filled with water and boats seen floating in all directions. Two smacks were lost and seamen were drowned. A 500-tonne vessel went down with all hands, and a Dutch galliot broke from her moorings and went ashore. Other vessels rode out the storm but were dismasted.
At Portland, in the village of Chisel 80 houses were swept away by the sea and 30 people died, while the ferry passage-house was almost demolished and the ferryman drowned. Along the coast to the west, a ship was wrecked in West Bay and 17 men from her were picked up and buried at Portland. To date 25 bodies had been picked up on the Isle of Portland. The fishermen had lost all their boats and nets.
Among the wrecks was that of a West Indiaman laden with rum and cotton, which foundered opposite Fleet, the whole of the crew perishing. The water swept over the barrier of Chesil Beach and inland to the village of Fleet, where it demolished the church only leaving the chancel or east end. Later the church was to be replaced by another nearby. Many houses were destroyed.
Although well inland, Dorchester did not escape. “The devastating effects of the storm were felt in every quarter of the town,” says the newspaper report. Here a heavy chimney stack fell on the home of the Rev. H.J. Richman, rector of Holy Trinity church, crushing him to death.
At Poole a roaring wind broke windows; trees were torn up by the roots and blown down, together with around 50 chimneys. The tide flooded the quays and craft were at the mercy of the wind and waves, and the town was surrounded on all sides. Some captains sank their own vessels to avoid them being damaged. Some £7,000 of damage was estimated to have been sustained before the tide retreated.
The Cobb at Lyme Regis was damaged, and a large number of houses were carried away at Bridport and sheep drowned. Damage there estimated at £20,000. And the effects of the storm were felt in Southampton and Portsmouth and even inland as far as Salisbury.