In 1724 the Liverpool Harbour Corporation
had taken a leading role in improving navigational
safety of the North Wales coast. They authorised the
use of 30lb of gunpowder to blow up some of the dangerous
rocks between Anglesey and Puffin Island. In 1766
the Liverpool Corporation and port merchants shared
the cost of promoting the Pilotage Act. The Act stated
that Pilots should be used to navigate the entrance
to Liverpool harbour. Pilot’s stations were
set up and Pilots guides with detailed maps and instructions
published. Despite these measures the transatlantic
traffic of the Industrial Revolution during the 1800s
produced a peak of shipwrecks around the Welsh coastline.
Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, the Board
of Trade kept records of UK ship losses. Steamer
ships became common. By 1822, the Albion paddle steamer
maintained a regular service between Liverpool and
Bangor in the Menai Straits. The Albion wrecked near
Rhyl in 1846. In 1831, the Menai Straits was the
scene of a disaster.
The Rothsay Castle
The Rothsay Castle wrecked on August
15 on the sandbanks near Penmon Point. One
hundred and seven people lost their lives.
The Rothsay Castle was one of the
first steam driven ships. She was not designed
to be a sea-going vessel. She had only one
lifeboat, and at the time of the disaster
she was known to be unseaworthy. The Rothsay
Castle was a disaster waiting to happen
(Skidmore, 1979). |
|
Almost 30 years later, another steam ship became
a wreck. Figure 3 shows an artist’s impression
of the Royal Charter in the storm that sank her in
1859. The storm of October 25t and 26, 1859 sank
133 ships around Britain’s coastlines. It drove
another 90 ashore. The storm was a Force 12 hurricane.
Over 800 people died in it. It became known as the
Charter Storm (Jones, 1973). The Welsh Royal Charter
Storm casualties include fourteen vessels wrecked
in Caernarfon Bay, one of which, the Revival, had
not even been launched. Six vessels sank in Holyhead
harbour; the Great Eastern miraculously survived;
11 vessels sank in Conwy Bay; the Queen Elizabeth
sank at Bangor; the brigantine Maria beached on the
sands of Red Wharf Bay.
The Royal Charter
The Royal Charter was an iron steam
driven clipper built in 1855. She was built
for the Australian run. She was impressive.
She had a winged messenger figurehead, three
tall masts, and a 200hp engine—this last
designed to maintain her speed when in a light
wind. She was fast. She went from Melbourne
to Liverpool in just 59 days, a full 30 days
ahead of her competitors. |
Figure 3 – Painting by E.D. Walker (1998) of the
Royal Charter in the storm that sank her in 1859. Courtesy
of the Artist.
|
Figure 4 shows an advertisement
posted by her owners, the Liverpool & Australian
Navigation Company. On her last voyage from
Melbourne, she was carrying about 450 passengers
and 34 crewmembers
She stored £322,440 of gold bullion
in her strong room, and an estimated £150,000
of gold sovereigns—these belonging
to passengers returning from the Australian
gold fields (Jones, 1973). Her captain, Thomas
Taylor, told her crew that he had spotted
the storm, which was then heading from the
South West over the Snowdonia Mountains.
Once the ship had passed around the tip of
Holyhead and the Skerries, he said, he was
confident in her ability to manage the voyage
to Liverpool harbour. Capt Taylor boasted
to his first class passengers that he would
have them in Liverpool that evening (Jones,
1973)
|
Figure 4 – Advertisement posted by the Liverpool
and Australian Navigation Company of the Royal Charter.
Courtesy of Gwynedd Archives.
|
Unfortunately for the captain, the winds changed.
Within half an hour of rounding the Skerries, Force
10 gales and an ebbing tide pushed the ship towards
the shore. By 8:30 p.m., Quartermaster Owen Williams
of Caernarfon took over the wheel; the Royal
Charter was in trouble. The Royal Charter sent
signals to the Pilot’s boat and displayed a
blue distress light. But neither Pilot Boat 4 nor
Pilot Boat 11 was able to make it through the storm
to the Royal Charter. With no sea room to
manoeuvre, and the ship slowly being pushed closer
to shore by the storm, at 11:30 p.m. Captain Taylor
gave orders to drop anchors four miles out. At 3:30
a.m. the gale, after breaking her anchor cables,
threw the Royal Charter onto the shore near
Moelfre. Joe Rodriguez, a sailor on board the Charter,
jumped overboard and struggled to take a line to
land.
None of the women or children braved the bosun’s
chair to safety. Only a few crewmembers took the
line to land. The Royal Charter grounded only 10
metres from land, but in a tremendous storm and despite
the efforts of 28 Moelfre men (they were later commended
for their actions), she broke in two and all but
40 men died. No women or children survived. The “twisted
iron ribs” (Jones, 1973) of the Royal Charter can
be seen at Spring low tides on the northern shore
of Moelfre Head.
One hundred years later, a message
came through to the lifeboat station at Moelfre.
It concerned a steamer caught in a gale off
the coast. The lifeboat coxwain, Coxwain Evans,
knew the story of the Royal Charter and
knew that the fate of the steamer was likely
to be the same. The 650-ton steamer Hindlea
II sank less than a half-mile from the
wreck of the Royal Charter. This time
there were no lives lost; Coxwain Evans earned
the Gold Medal for Bravery for his saving the
lives of the crew. |
Hindlea II
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