3-047-120 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late storms in the Baltic: scene on the coast of Falster, 1872. Engraving from a sketch by Holger Drachmann. 'The inundations caused by the great storm of the 13th November upon the low-lying Baltic shores of the Danish islands had most calamitous effects. The waves meeting from different sides, the higher grounds were converted into islands, the water carrying with it the fertile soil, and covering the fields with a layer of sand and gravel. Along the coasts of Sealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster, and the smaller islands the flood peeled from the land a belt of highly-cultivated earth, cutting here and there deep slices out of it. Some parishes suffered to the extent of half or two thirds of the whole tilled area; a few all but disappeared...In...Gjedesby-on-Falster, twenty persons were drowned, though only twelve corpses have been found. Three families have become extinct. Some of the small islets scattered about in the Belts were entirely submerged, and the inhabitants drowned, their boats having been carried away by the storm'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.