Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM.

Our town was visited between the hours of 12 o'clock on Wednesday night and 2 o'clock yesterday morning, with a storm of Thunder and Lightning, accompanied with a heavy blow and torrents of Rain, unequalled in severity, by any thing of the kind, in the memory of many of our oldest inhabitants.--For nearly one hour the atmosphere was illuminated by incessant flashes of lightning, attended with peals of thunder, calculated, from its nearness to us, to excite the most serious apprehensions of all who witnessed it. Several houses in this place were struck with the lightning, but we are happy to add, the damage sustained is not very considerable. The chimney of a new house in Portsmouth, the property of Wm. Drewry, was split from top to bottom, and the conductor of a house on Brewer street, in this town torn from the gable end of the house to which it was confined by large staples; many enclosures were blown down, and we are informed by a gentleman from Deep Creek, that the Corn in the fields which he passed, was laid prostrate and the roads for a considerable distance, nearly knee-deep in water.

The ship Commerce, captain Gardner, lying at Thorburn's wharf, and which was to sail this day for Liverpool, was struck--her main-mast, from the truck nearly to the deck, shivered in pieces, and her larboard pump split to the deck,--Fortunately, the Cargo which consisted of Naval Stores, Staves and Cotton, is not injured. Part of the cargo must, however, be discharged to put in a new mast, which will delay her sailing a week or more.