The Storm
The fishermen reached the fishing grounds, just a mile or two off shore, quite early. The morning began calm, fair and mild but the wind began to strengthen as the morning progressed and by around mid-day the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse and the south-westerly gale drove the boats away from land and down the firth. Although the men were powerful oarsmen the ferocity of the storm overwhelmed all three boats. All 21 people, men and youths, were drowned; only women, young children and the elderly remained.
Read more about this topic: Stotfield Fishing Disaster
Famous quotes containing the word storm:
“In the very midst of the crowd about this wreck, there were men with carts busily collecting the seaweed which the storm had cast up, and conveying it beyond the reach of the tide, though they were often obliged to separate fragments of clothing from it, and they might at any moment have found a human body under it. Drown who might, they did not forget that this weed was a valuable manure. This shipwreck had not produced a visible vibration in the fabric of society.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Why now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!
The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)