letter from an eyewitness

The letter was published by C. R. Wilson in 1898, and is transcribed below with punctuation and a number of grammatical changes to increase its readability. Wilson's original publication without this punctuation can be viewed here.

Captains Prince, Crab, Gilbert, and Acton are worthy men of good sense, and I believe of too much honour to say, or do, a base thing: the two former lost their Ships in the dreadful hurricane we had here on the night of 30 Sep 1737.

Such a scene of horror was that night, the like of I have never seen nor heard of. Such terrible gusts of wind - like the loudest thunder - and torrents of rain, that I expected every moment the house I live in (which is I believe the strongest in the town) would have fallen on my head. The noise was so violent uptairs, that myself and family were obliged to go down and stay below till morning. We stayed there with poor Mrs.Wastell and her children who had fled to our house for shelter, the doors and windows of hers having been blown from the walls.

But good God, what a sight was the town and river in the morning. Only the Duke of Dorset was to be seen in the river, whereas the evening before there were more than 29 sails of vessels great and small, many now being drriven ashore. Some broke to and others foundered. Remarkably, and this is scarce creditable in a river hardly a mile wide, there was no ebb tide for near 24 hours.

Our church steeple was blown down, as also were eight or ten English houses, and number belonging to the local merchants. The whole town looked like a place that had been bombarded by an enemy. Such a havock did it make that it is impossible to find words to express it.

I enclose a list of the shipping, with the damage each sustained, which I forgot to forward to Captain Gough, so please avail yourself of an opportunity to show it to him.

I thank God I have no greater share in this calamity than what my proportion of refitting the freight ships that were driven ashore will amount to, which may be about five or six thousands rupees for my part of all additional charges, and about half that in damage done to my houses in town and country.

Our beautiful shady roads were laid bare, which will not be the like again for another twenty years. I saved all my fine trees in the country that were blown down by replacing them while the earth was soft, as might have done been done to those on the roads had the same care been taken.

Because our boats and small craft were also destroyed, for some days it was impossible for us to help our distressed ships who lay ashore by the Governors Garden, three miles below the town. With the exception of the Newcastle, who lay high ashore and bilged over against the Fort, nor was the least assistance afforded to our own ships until all possible assistance had been first sent to the East India Company ships, which I believe were the first afloat. The Hallifax was an exception since she could not be floated until her goods were unladen, although I reckon this will scarcely believed in England.

I am sure no men in the world would (given the distress we were in) have obtained men and boats and provisions sooner then we did, though I believe many thought they were not served soon enough and, making no allowance for the difficulties under which we laboured, in being forced to get boats from remote places the Storm had not reached I will leave others to tell you more of this melancholy affair, but please inform my brothers, and others I have not written to.

 

Not an earthquake

Although it appears in many elementary texts and popular-press listings as an earthquake, the 30 Sept 1737 event was not an earthquake but a cyclone. The mention of an earthquake in derivative accounts was presumably metaphorical. There are no reports of shoreline flooding in Madras (Chennai) so that interpretations that have suggest it may have been a tsunami coincidentally associated with a cyclone have no support.

The 1737 Calcutta cyclone is also mistakenly attributed with a deathtoll of 300,000 people. However, the population of Calcutta at the time was less than 10,000, and not for a further century did the population grow to 30,000. The number of burials in St. Annes Church, Calcutta, was a few dozen, only 10% higher in 1737 than in the preceding and following decades.

The event is documented in the handwritten daily log of the East India Company as a storm that flooded the river and hinterland, causing an unknown number of deaths from drowning, but certainly less than 3000. These errors, and the provenance of historical documents mistakenly cited by early earthquake seismologists, are discussed in Bilham, R.,The 1737 Calcutta Earthquake and Cyclone Evaluated, Bull. Seism. Soc. Amer. 84(5), 1650-1657(1994). (Download 80k PDF file.

Authentic data

1. Eyewitness letter. On 30 Dec 1737, a month after the storm, the great grandson of Oliver Cromwell Francis Russell wrote to his cousin in England describing the storm's ferocity. The letter makes no mention of an earthquake. (see panel left).

2. East India Company ledger The handwroitten ledger describing damage to shipping was brought back to London 29 June 1838 on the Duke of Dorset. The ledger makes no mention of an earthquake, nor of lives lost, but describes damage to docks, warehouses and ships.

3. Bengal Public Consultation 26 Oct "hardly twenty Thach't houses were standing the next day"-"what still adds to the Calamity is that by the force of the wind the river over flow'd so much that a great Quantity of Rice was quite spoil'd"-"near 3000 Inhabitants were killed as great a number of large Cattle besides Goats and Poultry destroy'd. There is great damage to the Company's Out guards of the Towns, the Publick Catcherry, the Gates of the Town and several other places: Thomas Joshua Moor, 26 Oct 332-334, 1737)

4. Bengal Public Consultations 28 Oct A list of specific damage -of 32 company buildings, 24 are beyond repair. Of 22 gates in the town walls 14 are broke to pieces and the door of a greatly damaged puckka gate is quite blown out from the wall. Several Bridges large and small for draining the towns, destroyed and the river banks near the market place eroded so much that there was no space to construct temporary warehouses to import relief supplies of grain. Damage to shipping was extensive (Thomas Joshua Moore, Bengal Public Consultations, 28 Oct 332-334, 1737). By the violence of the storm, the Church Steeple and many large Brick Houses fell, and almost all in the town were greatly damaged (Bengal Public Consultations, pp. 297-299, 1737) The late stormy weather has blown down the Mohanna flag-staff, the masts are broken to pieces. All the Mud walls of the factory next to the Dutch ground are tumbled down.(Bengal Public Consultations, p. 324. 1737).

Derivatives six months later

5. London Magazine Friday 26 May 1738. 1738 p.257 No mention of an earthquake. "The Bedford from the E. Indies brought advice of a most terrible Hurricane at Bengal, which demolished many Houses, kill'd vast numbers of Inhabitants and destroyed and damag'd several of our East-India Ships.

The next three accounts are similar and it is considered possible that they are from the same source since they contain similar phrases. The French account is the first to mention an earthquake "a violent storm accompanied by frequent shocks of an earthquake" (highlighted in red) caused the river to leave its bed and inundate the surrounding land. More than 100,000 fatalities are mentioned, a number that must be an exagerration if it refers to Calcutta alone.

6. Mercure de France , June 1738 p.1200 Paris - L'Equipage d'un Vaisseau arrivé ici des Indes a confirmé la nouvelle qu'on avoit deja récue en France par levesseau le Philibert, des dommages causés dans le Royaume de Bengale par le débordement du Gange. Selon le raport de cet Equipage, il s'eleva la nuit du 10 au 11 Octobre de l'annee dernier, une violente Tempête, accompangnée de fréquentes secousses de tremblement de terre, et la Mer s'étant enflée considérablement, elle resoula les Eaux du Gange, qui sortit de son lit, et inonda tout la Pays voisin. Plusiers Bourgs et Villages ont été entierement submergés, et on prétend qu'il a péri plus de cent mille personnes. Plusiers Vaissaux et un grand nombre d'auttres Batimens, qui étoient dans le Golfe de Bengale, ont fait naufrage. Quelques-uns de ceaux qui n'ont pas été brisés contre les éceuils ont été portés par le vent et par les courans dans le milieu des terres, et ils se sont trouvés à sec après que les Eaux se sont retirées. "

7. London Magazine June 1738 p. 311 We had the following Particulars (among others) of the dreadful Hurricane that happen'd in India,mentioned in our last. p257. In the night between 11th and 12th Oct. last, there happened a furious Hurricane at the mouth of the Ganges, which reached 60 leagues up the River. There was at the same Time a violent Shock of an earthquake, which threw down a great many Houses along the River Side; in Galgota alone, a Port belonging to the English, 200 Houses were thrown down; and the high and magnificent Steeple of the English Church sunk into the ground without breaking. It is computed that 20,000 Ships, Barks, Sloops,Boats, Canoes &c. have been cast away. Of 9 English ships then in the Ganges, 8 were lost and most of the Crews drowned. Barks of 60 tons were blown two leagues up into the Land, over the tops of high Trees. Of the 4 Dutch Ships in the river, 3 were lost, with all the Men and Cargoes. 300,000 souls are said to have perished. The Water rose forty Feet higher than usual in the Ganges

8. Gentleman's Magazine, June 1738. V. 8 Page 321 On September 30, last happened a furious Hurricane in the Bay of Bengal, attended with a very heavy Rain which raised 15 Inches of Water in 6 Hours, and a violent Earthquake, which threw down [an] abundance of
Houses; and as the Storm reached 60 Leagues [>300 km] up the River Ganges, it is computed that 20,000 Ships, Barks, Sloops, Boats, Canoes, &c have been cast away. A prodigious Quantity of Cattle of all Sorts, a
great many Tygers, and several Rhinoceroses were drowned; even a great many Caymans [crocodiles] were stifled by the furious Agitation of the waters, and an innumerable Quantity of Birds was beat down into the River by he Storm. Two English ships of 500 Tons were thrown into a Village above 200 Fathom [309 m] from the bed of the River Ganges, broke to Pieces, and all the People drowned pellmell among the Inhabitants and Cattle. Barks of 60 Tons were blown two leagues [about 10 km] up into the Land over the tops of the trees. The Water rose
in all 40 Foot higher than usual. The English ships drove ashore and broke to Pieces were the Decker, Devonshire and Newcastle; and the Pelham is missing.

In 1880 the 20 year old Richard D. Oldham compiled his late father's (Thomas Oldham) notes in his catalogue of Indian earthquakes. He cited extract 7 attributing it accidentally to reference 8, an error that is attributable to John Hawkesworth (writing in 1803 under the pseudonym, Asiaticus), the presumed source available in Calcutta to Thomas Oldham when he was assembling the materials. This has confused numerous subsequent readers, including C.R. Wilson, an authority on Indian history and geography writing in 1898.

Modern day accounts of the 1737 cyclone attributing it to an earthquake cite Oldham 1883.

Asiaticus (pseud., John Hawkesworth) (1801), The East Indian Chronologist: Part the First: Occurrences under the house of Stuart, Part the second: Occurrences under the House of Hanover, Hircarrah Press, Calcutta, pp. 106.

Asiaticus (pseud., John Hawkesworth) (1803) Asiaticus Part the First. Ecclesiastical, Chronological, and Historical Sketches respecting Bengal. Part the second. The epitaphs in the different burial grounds in and about Calcutta. Telegraph Press: Calcutta, pp.86.

Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review, The:, Sylvanus Urban, gentleman, (ed. pseudo), Chatto and Windus, Lond. June 1738. p. 321. Library of Congress Microfiche Collection 05419, Roll 82.

London Magazine, The London Magazine, Foreign Affairs, June 1738, p. 311. Library of Congress Microfiche Collection 01105, Roll 194.

Oldham, T. (1883). Catalogue of Indian Earthquakes, Memoirs Geological Survey of India, Vol.19, Pt.3, pp.170.

Wilson, C. R., (1898), A contemporary account of the Great Storm of Calcutta, 1737. J. R. Asiatic Soc., London, 29-33.