about one o'clock in the
afternoon
Several of the officers came on board of us , among them many old friends of mine , and from them I gathered some accounts of that tremendous visitation . It first broke on the Island of Jamaica , at the little seaport town of Savannah-la-Mer . That hapless place , with the adjacent country , was almost entirely overwhelmed by the sea , which rushed in over it with tremendous force , driven on by the fury of a tempest whose force has rarely been surpassed . The gale began at about one o'clock in the afternoon from the south-east , increasing in violence till four p.m. , when it veered to the south , then reaching its height , and continued thus till eight , when it began to abate . Terrible was the havoc committed in these few hours . The waves , raised to a height never before witnessed , foaming and roaring , rushed with irresistible impetuosity towards the land , sweeping into the bay and carrying before it every building it encountered ; numbers of the inhabitants it overtook being drowned , while the rest fled shrieking before it for safety to the Savannah . There the ruins only of houses remained to afford them shelter .