This hurricane was first encountered by a boat in the eastern Caribbean Sea, but it may have developed in early October in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off the Cape Verde Islands. The system ultimately strengthened and expanded as it tracked slowly westward; affecting Barbados late on October 9. Late on October 10, the worst of the hurricane passed over the island, with at least one estimate of winds as high as during landfall, which is higher than any other 1-minute sustained wind speed in recorded Atlantic basin history. Early on October 11, the hurricane turned north-northwest about east of Saint Lucia, and later that night it neared the island of Martinique. The cyclone gradually weakened as it passed to the southwest of Dominica early on October 12 and subsequently struck the island of Guadeloupe.