Disastrous Gales in England.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 139, 8 December 1894, Page 2

Disastrous Gales in England.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY. (Per Mail Steamer.) A great storm that began ou the 12th November in the Chanuel and throughout England continued up to the 14th. A Norwegian ship was driven ashore near Dover. Tho captain and several seamen were drowned while trying to laud in one of the ship's boats. The rest of the crew were rescued by means of tho rocket apparatus in the presence of thousands of excitod spectators. Tho rivers Avon and Stowe overflowed, and in Devonshire many of the inhabitants sought refuge on the housetops. A large number of sheep and cattle were drowned, aud traflic in the valley was suspended. The Thames rose four feet at Richmond. All the channel traffic to aud from Folkestone was stopped. At Bournemouth thousands of tons of cliff j were washed into the sea. The greater part of the pier at Dover was carried away, and on the afternoon of November 14th the gale was so severe at Portsmouth that all communication with the ships of war at Spithead was stopped. During the storm a Flushing pilot was run down by a steamer, and eight of the cutter's crew were drowned. An unknown two-masted vessel was seen off Guernsey on tho morning of the 14th, apparently making bad weather of it. Suddenly she disappeared, and it is supposed she foundered with all her crow. Further reports from the south and east of England on the 14th speak of enormous losses of property. A number of villages are inundated, and the inhabitants in the low-lying parts of these places were removed in boats to higher lands. Tho wrecking of several small vessels is reported along the east and south coasts. A boat belonging to the London steamer Seadust was washed ashore at Worthiugton, a town in Sussex. A corpse was found in the boat, and it is supposed tho steamer had foundered.