Great Hurricane of 1780

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... a dreadful hurricane which began to rage with great fury at noon [the 10th] and continue with great violence till four o'clock the next morning, the 11th; At eight o'clock at night St. Thomas's parsonage was demolished and the church where the Rector and his family sought shelter began to fall about two hours after, the Chancel fell while the family were in the church ... St. Thomas's Chapel, St. Michael's, St. George's, Christ Church's and St. Lucy's churches were totally destroyed, the other churches were severely 'injured' (except St. Peter's and St. Philip's). Because of the demolition of the parish church and chapel[,] 'divine services' continued in the 'boiling house' at the 'Rock Hall' estate of Thomas Harper by Rev Wm Duke and curate Hugh Austin of St Thomas. Most other buildings and works were blown down and many lives were lost. The dead could not be brought to a church so were buried in gardens and private land. [12]

The hurricane stripped the bark off trees and left none standing on Barbados. [4] Cuban meteorologist José Carlos Millás has estimated that this damage could be caused only by winds exceeding 200 miles per hour (320 km/h). [11] Every house and fort on Barbados was destroyed. According to British Admiral George Brydges Rodney, the winds carried their heavy cannons aloft 100 feet (30 m). [4]

The wind directions recorded during the hurricane suggest that the eye missed Barbados to the north. Northwesterly winds increased through the day on October 10. The wind gradually backed to westerly through the night of October 10 and peaked at midnight. Wind speed returned to normal by 8:00 the morning of October 11. [4]

Strong winds affected Antigua and Saint Kitts, with many ships in Saint Kitts washed ashore. At Grenada, nineteen Dutch ships were wrecked. [4]

The hurricane later grounded 50 ships near Bermuda. [4]

The Great Hurricane of 1780
Hurricane San Calixto
Great Hurricane of the Antilles
Great Hurricane (1780) areas affected.png
Areas affected by the hurricane (excluding Bermuda)
Deadliest Atlantic hurricanes
RankHurricaneSeasonFatalities
1 ?  "Great Hurricane" 1780 22,000–27,501
2 5  Mitch 1998 11,374+
3 2  Fifi 1974 8,210–10,000
4 4  "Galveston" 1900 8,000–12,000
5 4  Flora 1963 7,193
6 ?  "Pointe-à-Pitre" 1776 6,000+
7 5  "Okeechobee" 1928 4,112+
8 ?  "Newfoundland" 1775 4,000–4,163
9 3  "Monterrey" 1909 4,000
10 4  "San Ciriaco" 1899 3,855

French islands

The hurricane produced a 25-foot (7.6 m) storm surge on Martinique, destroying all houses in Saint-Pierre and causing 9,000 deaths. A storm surge also struck the south coast of Guadeloupe and caused considerable damage. [4]

In Saint Vincent, the hurricane destroyed 584 of the 600 houses in Kingstown. [4]

On Saint Lucia, rough waves and a strong storm tide struck the fleet of Admiral Rodney at Port Castries, with one ship destroying the city's hospital after being lifted on top of it. The hurricane destroyed all but two houses in Port Castries, and about 6,000 perished on the island. [4]

High winds, heavy rains, and storm surge caused severe damage at Roseau in Dominica. [4]

The attorney general of Guadeloupe writes:

The gale of wind which happened on the 12th Oct. was the most severe perhaps ever known. Barbadoes suffered amazingly, 6500 souls perished. Tobago laid waste, Grenades, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique, suffered more than any person can conceive. St. Kitts and Eustatia, did not escape without damage: this island did but just feel it.

Dutch islands

Warehouses on the beach of St. Eustatius were damaged by the hurricane. Great hurricane of 1780 Sint Eustatius.jpg
Warehouses on the beach of St. Eustatius were damaged by the hurricane.

A Dutch sea-officer was on a ship that was blown from Sint Eustatius to Martinique. When he returned to Sint Eustatius, he reported on the damage in Saint-Pierre, Martinique, Saint Vincent, and St. Lucia. He writes in his letter:

A short while ago it pleased the Lord Almighty to show us his power. Here we had from 12 to 22 October of this year a very fierce wind & a heavy see that ruined a lot of houses and warehouses, yes even many ships were wrecked and many people were killed. The wall has been completely washed away by the sea and the back of the house has been left only on single struts, yes it was so heavy that the sea flew over our house but we may thank the Lord for his mercy that we have come off so well.

He did not mention a dramatic death toll on the island. He also said that the situation there was not as bad as on the French and English islands. [13]

Spanish islands

Heavy damage was reported in southern Puerto Rico, primarily in Cabo Rojo and Lajas. Severe damage also occurred in the eastern region of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. [4]

Losses by the British navy

HMS Stirling Castle sinking near Hispaniola Representation of the unfortunate Loss of His Majesty's Ship Stirling Castle - after having been dismasted in the Great Hurricane Octr 6th 1780 - was wrecked near the Silver Keys, off the NE end of Island Hispaniola RMG PY0732 (cropped).jpg
HMS Stirling Castle sinking near Hispaniola

Among the ships lost from Rodney's fleet were the frigates HMS Blanche, which disappeared without a trace, and HMS Andromeda and HMS Laurel, which were wrecked on Martinique with heavy loss of life. By far the worst losses in the Royal Navy, however, were those ships under the command of Vice-Admiral Peter Parker and Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley. At the time of the hurricane, Rowley was off the coast of New York with a portion of the fleet, including HMS Sandwich, while Parker was in Port Royal, Jamaica. Many of their ships, however, were in the hurricane's path. The ships of the line HMS Thunderer and HMS Stirling Castle, frigate HMS Phoenix, post ship HMS Deal Castle and sloop-of-war HMS Endeavour were lost, and seven other warships were dismasted. [14] [15] :58

Losses by the French navy

A fleet of 40 French ships was struck off Martinique during the hurricane. Several hundred military personnel and about 9,000 civilians died; however, the French Navy's only loss was the frigate Junon. [15] :114

Name

The storm was named the San Calixto hurricane in Puerto Rico because the eye of the cyclone made landfall there on October 14, the Christian feast day of Pope Callixtus I, venerated by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Callixtus ("San Calixto" in Spanish). [2] Since European arrival in the Americas in 1492, all storms and hurricanes had been named after the name of the saint of the feast day on which the storm hit Puerto Rico; for example, the 1867 San Narciso hurricane, the 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane, the 1928 San Felipe hurricane, and the 1932 San Ciprian hurricane. [16]

It was not until 1953 that the United States Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) started naming hurricanes by human names, a practice relinquished in 1979 to the World Meteorological Organization, though it was only in 1960 that hurricanes stopped being officially named after saints in Puerto Rico. [2]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. "On this date in 1780, the deadliest Atlantic storm on record devastated large swaths of the Caribbean, killing some 30,000 people. The Great Hurricane of 1780 wreaked havoc on Barbados, Puerto Rico… | John Hood".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mújica-Baker, Frank. Huracanes y tormentas que han afectado a Puerto Rico (PDF). Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Agencia Estatal para el Manejo de Emergencias y Administración de Desastres. pp. 4, 7–10, 12–14. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  3. also known as Huracán San Calixto, the Great Hurricane of the Antilles, the Great Hurricane of the West Indies, and the 1780 Disaster
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Orlando Pérez (1970). "Notes on the Tropical Cyclones of Puerto Rico" (PDF). San Juan, Puerto Rico National Weather Service. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 Edward N. Rappaport; Jose Fernandez-Partagas; Jack Beven (1997). "The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492–1996". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Retrieved January 2, 2007.
  6. Hurricane Research Division (2006). "Re-Analysis Project". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Retrieved April 30, 2007.
  7. 1 2 Withington, John (2016). Storm: Nature and Culture. Islington, England.: Reaktion Books. ISBN   978-1780237084.
  8. "The Weather Doctor Almanac 2010 the Hurricanes of 1780".
  9. Michael Chenoweth (2006). "A Re-assessment of Historical Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclone Activity, 1700–1855" (PDF). NOAA. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  10. Al Sandrik; Chris Landsea (2003). "Chronological Listing of Tropical Cyclones affecting North Florida and Coastal Georgia 1565–1899". Hurricane Research Division. Retrieved February 12, 2007.
  11. 1 2 Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (2005). "NEMO remembers the great hurricane of 1780". Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  12. Michele Martin-Taylor (October 15, 2017). "The Origin of the Barbados Emptage/Emtage Family: St. Thomas, Barbados, Parish Marriage Registers, 1780 (RL1/49 page 209)" . Retrieved December 2, 2017.
  13. Jong, C. de. Reize naar de Caribische Eilanden, 1807. p. 140
  14. Wayne Neely (2012). The Great Hurricane of 1780: The Story of the Greatest and Deadliest Hurricane of the Caribbean and the Americas. iUniverse. ISBN   978-1475949278 . Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  15. 1 2 William Laird Clowes (1900). The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900. Vol. 4. Chatham Publishing (published 1997). ISBN   1-86176-013-2.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  16. "San Ciriaco Hurricane". East Carolina University, RENCI Engagement Center. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 13, 2018.