 Now, the Great Hurricane was one of the Cape Verde-type storms that come off the coast of Africa and then impact the Lesser Antilles Islands. And in October of 1780, when it moved ashore over Barbados, the winds of that hurricane were so strong that it leveled every tree on the island, destroyed every structure on the island, destroyed the forts, took the heavy two-ton cannons and threw them hundreds of feet away from the forts.