16 NOVEMBER 1901, Page 3

The full accounts of the great gale which swept over

these islands and the seas adjacent on Tuesday and Wednesday show an appalling loss of life from shipwreck. Over two hundred lives are known to have been lost, and it is feared that the number is really much higher. Though no very large ship was wrecked, a great deal of smaller shipping was destroyed, including a Revenue cruiser. The losses included also a very bad lifeboat disaster on the Norfolk coast at Caister, near Yarmouth. The lifeboat ' Beauchamp' capsized while returning to shore, and nine of her crew were drowned.