The 1775 Hurricane: “A Most Terrible Gale of Wind”

“On the 12th of September, in the year 1775, this coast was visited by a most terrible gale of wind,” wrote Reverend Lewis Anspach in the History of the Island of Newfoundland, 1819. It’s early September in 1775. Newfoundland’s waters, rich with the bounty of the sea, are teeming with fishermen from Ireland and England looking to reap the spoils of this abundance. Without much warning, the waters surge 30 feet and the winds begin to howl, casting the small fishing boats into the ...