These Cautions I thought necessary to set down here, for the satisfaction of the Curious; and as they are only my Opinions, I submit them to the judgment of the Reader.
Of the Damages on the Water
As this might consist of several Parts, I was inclin'd to have divided it into Sections or Chapters, relating particularly to the publick Loss, and the private; to the Merchant, or the Navy, to Floods by the Tides, to the River Damage, and that of the Sea; but for brevity, I shall confine it to the following particulars.
- First, The Damage to Trade.
- Secondly, The Damage to the Royal Navy.
- Thirdly, The Damage by High Tides.
First, of the Damage to Trade.
I might call it a Damage to Trade, that this Season was both for some time before and after the Tempest, so exceeding, and so continually Stormy, that the Seas were in a manner Unnavigable and Negoce, at a kind of a general Stop, and when the Storm was over, and the Weather began to be tolerable; almost all the Shipping in England was more or less out of Repair, for there was very little Shipping in the Nation, but what had receiv'd some Damage or other.
It is impossible, but a Nation so full of Shipping as this, must be exceeding Sufferers in such a general Disaster, and who ever considers the Violence of this Storm by its other dreadful Effects will rather wonder, and be thankful that we receiv'd no farther Damage, than we shall be able to give an Account of by Sea.
I have already observ'd what Fleets were in the several Ports of this Nation, and from whence they came: As to Ships lost of whom we have no other Account than that they were never heard of. I am not able to give any Perticulars, other than that about three and forty Sail of all Sorts are reckon'd to have perished in that manner. I mean of such Ships as were at Sea, when the Storm began, and had no Shelter or Port to make for their Safety: Of these, some were of the Russia Fleet, of whom we had an Account of 20 Sail lost the Week before the great Storm, but most of them reach'd the Ports of Newcastle, Humber and Yarmouth, and some of the Men suffered in the general Distress afterwards.
But to proceed to the most general Disasters, by the same Method, as in the former Articles of Damages by Land. Several Persons having given themselves the Trouble to further this Design with Authentick Particulars from the respective Ports. I conceive we cannot give the World a clearer and more Satisfactory Relation than from their own Words.
The first Account, and plac'd so, because 'tis very Authentick and Particular, and the furthest Port Westward, and therefore proper to begin our Relation, is from on Board her Majesty's Ship the Dolphin in Milford Haven, and sent to us by Capt. Soanes, the Commodore of a Squadron of Men of War then in that Harbour, to whom the Public is very much oblig'd for the Relation, and which we thought our selves bound there to acknowledge. The Account is as follows,