Art. V.—A Contemporary Account of the Great Storm at Calcutta in 1737

Extract

The great storm of 1737 is one of the few events still remembered in the early history of Calcutta. The traditional account of the matter is that given by “Asiaticus,” which he professes to have derived from the Gentleman's Magazine. It is as follows:—“In the night of the 11th October, 1737, there happened a furious hurricane at the mouth of the Ganges, which reached sixty leagues up the river. There was at the same time a violent earthquake, which threw down a great many houses along the river side; in Golgota (i.e. Calcutta) alone, a port belonging to the English, two hundred houses were thrown down, and the high and magnificent steeple of the English Church sunk into the ground without breaking. It is computed that twenty thousand ships, barques, sloops, boats, canoes, etc., have been cast away; of nine English ships then in the Ganges, eight were lost, and most of the crews drowned. Barques of sixty tons were blown two leagues up into land over the tops of high trees; of four Dutch ships in the river, three were lost, with their men and cargoes; 300,000 souls are said to have perished. The water rose forty feet higher than usual in the Ganges.” Then follows the story of the voracious crocodile in the hold of the stranded ship.