278 THE HIGH TIDE OF NOVEMBER 29, 1897.
high tides which accompanied the gale on the coast and the
borderlands of the estuaries of the Thames, the Blackwater, and
the Colne, that the great destruction was wrought. The sea-
walls were broken down in many places, and it is estimated that
around the Essex coast about 50,000 acres of low-lying land
within the walls was flooded by sea water. We give a few
details of local phenomena and damage caused by the floods as
examples. The facts are mainly taken from the reports in the
local papers which devoted many columns to a record of the
disaster :—
Harwich.—The gale caused great damage during Sunday evening, and
even increased in violence next day. Several vessels were wrecked. By one
o'clock on Monday the spray was breaking over the sea-wall, and in a short
time fishermen's boats that had dragged their anchors were tossed over the
wall on to the mud on the Harwich side. The tide continued to rise, and by
two o'clock hundreds of people were on Bathside to witness a sight never
before seen at Harwich. The whole extent of the sea-wall from the Con-
tinental Pier at Harwich to Dovercourt Station was one large cataract.
Vessels were being driven up to the banks. A barge was lifted by a wave
clean over the wall and floated on to the water inside. By three o'clock boats
were being rowed a considerable distance up the main streets of Harwich.
By half-past three very nearly the whole of the houses of Bathside were
flooded, in some cases the water reached to the ceilings of the lower rooms,
and got into the landings of the bed-rooms. On Tuesday morning people
were imprisoned in their houses, and their pantries having been washed out,
the baker's boys could be seen throwing hot rolls into the first-floor windows!
Walton-on-the-Naze and Neighbourhood.—At five o'clock on Sunday evening
there was a very sudden and severe outburst of storm, which, however,
quickly abated. Soon after 12 mid-day on Monday the tide was of the pro-
portion of a spring-tide, but it had yet a long time to flow, and there was a
strong wind which tossed the backwaters into a very rough condition, forcing
the waves against the walls, and in a very short time making breaches, through
which the waters rushed, covering the pastures. The basements of houses
were soon flooded and traffic on the main road stopped. At the wall around
Walton Hall Marsh the sea did great damage, breaking through in quite
thirty different places, some of the breaches being several yards in length.
Near Salt Creek, the top of the wall was taken off for quite 100 yards. At
Horsey Island, of 1,000 acres, scarcely a tenth of the land escaped being sub-
merged or washed by the rolling of the tide. At Pewit Island the tide had
complete mastery, and many other lands were submerged. Between Frinton
and Little Holland the sea-wall withstood the enormous pressure until very
nearly the highest water, when a wide gap was caused, through which the sea
rushed in an indescribable manner, flooding hundreds of acres of pasturage
and low-lying fields, vast numbers of rats and ground game were drowned.
At Clacton the sea rose to within a foot of the pier, and washed over the
lower promenade ; the sea-wall sustained a good deal of damage, and the
higher part of the beach was raised three feet by the sand left behind when
the tide ebbed.