The fascination of the Halifax researcher John Dickie with the 1757 fortress of Louisbourg Hurricane began with a different research project: the submarine shipwreck of the HMS Tilbury.
The British warship reached its end during the seven -year war when Britain and France fought for colonial domain in North America.
While examining ship records and historical records, Dickie discovered a larger story about a weather event that could have had long -range historical consequences.
He learned that the storm that sank the Tilbury affected many other ships at that time.
“We began to realize that the things that were being described … indicate a storm that was particularly strong and that seemed to be stronger than anything we have seen in modern times,” he said.
Through the scientific analysis of the data of the military records, Dickie could extrapolate the intensity of the storm.
He pointed out that the winds on September 25, 1757 were powerful enough to break masts and turn several ships.
Dickie’s investigation led him to place the storm in the rank of category 4, with maximum winds greater than 200 km/h.
The marejada cyclonic in Louisbourg, on the east coast of the island, was especially devastating, measuring approximately three times higher than is typical for such a hurricane.
The British fleet was severely damaged. Most of the ships lost their masts. The Tilbury and the Huron were destroyed.
In 2024, Dickie published his findings in the European Geosciences Union Journal Climate of the Past.
Rare storm
CBC’s meteorologist Ryan Soddon said a category 4 hurricane that Far North is extremely rare.
“We are talking about winds of more than 200 km/h,” he said.
“That puts it in the same league that Fiona, but with even more concentrated destruction.”
Snoddon said that a collision of a tropical system with cold air from the north supercharged the storm, creating an exceptionally destructive event.
It happened at a crucial moment in history.
The strength of the historian of Louisbourg, Daniel Pitcher, said the storm occurred while Britain was accumulating its largest American fleet, under the command of vice council Francis Holburne, to attack Louisbourg.
The strength was a key French port that protects the Saint Lawrence and Quebec River.
While the storm left the British fleet in Jirones, the French fleet, which was safely in the port, was in much better.
It also caused considerable damage to the strength itself, said pitcher.
“The waves rose on the walls, flooding parts of the city,” he said. “The soldiers had to leave their stalls and certain areas of the fortress because the water was up to their knees.”
According to pitcher, the storm reached up to nine kilometers into the coast.
Lost opportunity
Dickie points out that the French captains, under the command of Admiral Dubois de la Motte, requested him to press his advantage and capture the British fleet, but he refused.
Pitcher suggests that Dubois de la Motte’s decision may have been influenced by a combination of climate and disease.
He said that the French Navy was affected by a typhus epidemic while sailing from France, with many sailors still recovering.
Dickie is fascinated by waterfall consequences that this almost failure could have caused.
I speculate that it could have led to a French capture of Halifax, no British attack against Quebec in 1759, France held New France and the elimination of the French reason to support the American revolution.
“None of the other pieces would have existed to create the United States,” Dickie said.
He believes that Dubois de la Motte, who was 70 years old, was probably satisfied with simply achieving his orders to defend the fortress, without realizing what had let.
He marvels at how this forgotten storm, followed by French inaction, could have avoided the existence of the United States.
“The world as we know it today could be very different. But we would remember this very famous storm that is not remembered at all today.”
