1737 Calcutta Cyclone

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Calcutta cyclone

Unknown strength tropical cyclone (SSHS)

Formed

Unknown

Dissipated

October 7, 1737

Highest
winds

Unknown (1-minute sustained)

Lowest pressure

Unknown

Damage

Unknown

Fatalities

3,000+

Areas
affected

India

Part of the
Pre-1980 North Indian cyclone seasons

On 7 October 1737, a natural disaster struck the city of Calcutta (modern-day Kolkata) in India. For a long time this was believed in Europe to have been the result of an earthquake, but it is now believed to have been a tropical cyclone.

Thomas Joshua Moore, the duties collector for the British East India Company in Calcutta, wrote in his official report that a storm and flood had destroyed nearly all the thatched buildings and killed 3,000 of the city's inhabitants. Other reports from merchant ships indicated an earthquake and tidal surge were to blame, destroying 20,000 ships in the harbor and killing 300,000 people. It should be noted that the population of Calcutta at the time was around 20,000. [1]

Although there seems to be little evidence for the popular figure of 300,000 deaths or for the existence of an earthquake at all, it is this number that shows up in popular literature. At the same time, the figure of 3000 is only an estimation of the number of deaths inside the city itself.