The weather 45 years ago, in January 1953, was cold and bleak and very boisterous. On the morning of January 31st, a very deep depression lay just to the east of Scotland, and as it moved slowly over the North Sea, it caused havoc over northern Europe. The first major disaster of the day involved a British Rail car ferry called the Princess Victoria, which plied between Stranraer and Larne. Stranraer lies tucked deep into the neck of Loch Ryan, a long narrow inlet facing north, and the gales along the western flank of the depression blew straight into the Loch. When the Princess Victoria sailed at 7.45 a.m on January 31st, it had 10 miles to make into the teeth of the tempest before reaching the narrow exit to the open sea. Once there, it seems that the captain, intimidated by the fierce conditions raging outside the shelter of the loch, attempted to return to port. But the northerly gale hit the ship full force on the stern after it had swung around, and a huge wave forced the steel rear doors ajar.
Almost immediately, water streamed into the exposed car deck, and the fate of the Princess Victoria was sealed. The ship struggled on for several hours, but at 1.15 p.m. the order to abandon ship was issued. In the ensuing chaos only 41 of the 174 passengers and crew aboard were saved.
Later in the day, the northerly gales moved into the North Sea, bearing down upon the coast of Holland. In such circumstances, where very strong winds act on a stretch of water over a long distance - if they have what we call a long "fetch" - they "pile up" water against an adjacent coastline, causing an increase in sea level of several feet, a so-called tidal surge.
Further problems may be caused by the depression itself that has caused the wind; the low pressure compounds the situation by allowing the sea level to rise like a barometer by about one foot for every 30 hPa that atmospheric pressure is below the average value. And on that fateful night there was a third important ingredient to contribute to a crisis: the tidal surge raised by the storm peaked within a couple of hours of the predicted high spring tide at about midnight on the night of January 31st.
The combined effect of all these elements was that the water level along the Dutch coastline rose about 10 feet above that of a normal high tide. The North Sea streamed in over the Netherlands, and some 1,600 people lost their lives.