Pastor Alexander Hewatt on the 1761 Tornado

 Hewatt, Alexander, An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Volumes I and II (1779)

 

Hewat on the May 1761 Tornado (called a whirlwind)

 

It appeared at first to the west of the town, like a large column of smoke, approaching fast in an irregular direction. The vapour of which it was composed resembled clouds rolling one over another in violent tumult and agitation, assuming at one time a dark, at another a bright alarming colour. Its motion was exceedingly swift and crooked. As it approached the inhabitants were alarmed with an uncommon sound, like the continual roaring of distant thunder, or the noise made by a stormy sea beating upon the shore, which brought numbers of people to witness the dreadful phenomenon. While it passed down Ashley river, such was its incredible velocity and force, that it plowed the waters to the bottom, and laid the channel bare. The town narrowly and providentially escaped, but it threatened destruction to a fleet consisting of no less than forty sail of loaded ships, lying at anchor in Rebellion road, about four miles below the town, and waiting a fair wind to sail for England. When it reached the feet, five vessels were sunk in an instant by it, and his Majesty's ship the Dolphin, with eleven others, were dismalted. 

Such was the situation of the fleet, and so rapid was the motion of the whirlwind, that though the seamen observed it approaching, it was impossible to provide against it. In its oblique course it struck, only a part of the fleet, and the damage, though computed at L. 20,000 sterling, was by no means so great as might have been expected. Nor were many lives lost, for the channel of the river not being very deep, while the ships sat down in the mud and were covered by the waves, the sailors saved themselves by running up the shrouds.

The whirlwind passed the town a little before three o'clock, and before four the sky was so clear and serene, that we could scarcely have believed such a dreadful scene had been exhibited, had it not left many striking proofs behind it. Its route was not only marked in the woods, having levelled the loftiest trees, or swept them away before it like chaff, but its effects were visible in the fleet, by the number of vessels sunk and dismasted.