'MOLFRA VILLAGE, REDWHARF BAY, SATURDAY.--Who does not shudder at
the mention of a shipwreck? In Llanallgo church, about a mile from
the desolate coast on which the unfortunate "Royal Charter" has gone
on shore, lie about thirty distorted and mangled bodies, and to that
locality anxious and distracted relatives crowded early yesterday
morning. At another church hard by, which is known as Penrhos, there
were also the bodies of two children and two ladies laid out; and
the anxiety of friends may be gathered when it is stated that
through pelting and incessant rain, over almost inaccessible roads,
for more than fifteen miles, hundreds of people wended their way to
the _locus in quo_ of the wreck.
'This has been pronounced the most dreadful occurrence of the kind
that has happened on this coast. Perhaps it is the most terrible
marine disaster that has ever happened anywhere. So complete is the
wreck, that Captain Fell says in his _naïve_ nautical style, that he
has been seventeen years "at this sort of work," but never saw a
vessel so completely destroyed. The size of the ship, too, and the
number of persons lost, render it an unexampled calamity.
'Captain Fell, from Lloyd's, was in attendance early yesterday
(Friday) morning, at Molfra or Moelfra, deputed to make inquiries
for the underwriters. The vessel had on board 49,000_l._ in specie,
79,000 oz. in gold, valued at 320,000_l._, making a total of
369,000_l._, besides a large quantity of money in the hands of the
passengers. The excitement at Lloyd's on the arrival of the
disastrous intelligence is described by Captain Fell as intense, the
confidence from the first in the ship's sailing qualities being so
great that insurances were taken at 80_s._ per cent. As an
indication of the wealth in the hands of the crew and passengers, it
may be mentioned that torn and dilapidated garments have been picked
up on the shore, some of which contain considerable amounts of
money, watches, and other valuables. Intimation was early given of
the danger in which the ship was placed, but though little hope was
entertained of the safety of the vessel herself, every one seems to
have retained a hope of life, and rushed to his and her valuables
and money, and sought safety with as little encumbrance in the shape
of clothing as possible.'
And yet another communication, though only of a few lines, must be
given. It were easy to write a most pathetic prolusion to it, but I
prefer to let it stand in its nude significance:--
'LIVERPOOL, SUNDAY MORNING.--This banquet (that is, a Grand
Conservative Banquet to the Earl of Derby and Mr. Disraeli), which
during the last two months has been anticipated with so much
interest by the whole Conservative party, is just concluded....
Altogether the general effect was remarkably brilliant and
picturesque. It ought to be remarked, however, that many persons of
position were absent on account of the wreck of the "Royal Charter."
The calamity has cast a perceptible gloom over the town, and at the
beginning of the banquet the conversation rather turned on the
catastrophe than on politics. Some thought the banquet ought never
to have been held; but the news of the accident arriving so near the
day, it was impossible to delay it: otherwise there is no doubt it
would have been postponed.'
That one brief paragraph will attest to the colony how deep is the
sympathy entertained in England for the friends of those who are lost.
Had it been practicable to put off the feast to a more convenient
season it would have been done. The committee met and considered the
matter, and found it was impossible. The shadow of the lost ship,
however, rested upon the banquet!
How could it be otherwise? The day before, the inquest on the bodies
of some of the lost voyagers had been opened, and the following
heartrending description of it appeared in the Saturday's papers which
the banqueters must have bought on their way, from all parts of the
country, to Liverpool:--
'THE INQUEST.--The inquest on the bodies was commenced yesterday
(Friday) afternoon, at Llanallgo church, before Mr. William Jones,
coroner of Anglesea, and a jury who were sworn in Welsh. It was an
impressive sight when the coroner, standing at the communion table,
surrounded by the group of dead and mangled corpses, amid the
audible sobs of those who had recognized their friends, commenced
his melancholy task.
'Mr. Moore, solicitor of Warrington, before the opening of the
inquest, asked the coroner what course he intended to pursue.
'The coroner thought he should be satisfied, under the melancholy
circumstances, with the identification of the bodies.
'Mr. Bright, of the company owning the vessel, undertook to have any
of the surviving crew present who would be able to give any
information.
'Mr. James Russell, who said his father lived in Linlithgowshire,
and who was one of the passengers who escaped, recognized John
Smith, son of Edmund Smith, Mrs. Woodroff (companion to Mrs.
Forster, also in the vessel and lost), Catherine Margaret Russell,
and Richard Reed. Mr. Forster lives at Grindlow House, Manchester,
Mrs. Woodroff's husband is expected home by the "George Marshall."
Richard Walton, of 22 Duckworth Street, Brunswick Road, Liverpool,
identified his brother James, between 21 and 22. Thomas Outerside, 6
Clare Street, Liverpool, printer, identified John Emery, Stone,
Staffordshire.
'The coroner then proceeded to Penrhos church, where he also charged
the jury with the investigation into the circumstances of the death
of the bodies lying there. The inquests were adjourned until
Wednesday.' [Later proceedings before the coroner, will be found
elsewhere.] 'In reply to an application, the coroner undertook to
have an interpreter provided.
'Several parties were present who stated they were prepared to
vindicate the character and memory of Captain Taylor. The vessel it
was stated, made no water until it broke up. The ladies it was
arranged, should go first; but before opening the saloon doors, the
vessel parted in two and stopped all communication.
'Mr. Samuel Henry, a jeweller from Adelaide, who had been confined
on the ground that he was insane, was amongst the number in
Llanallgo church. Mr. Glover, a gentleman of fortune (from Adelaide,
it is said), who was coming to England for the purpose of consulting
some skilled oculist, is also amongst the number, and a large sum of
money was found on his person. Writing-desks, likenesses, letters, a
part of the post-office, and various other relics, have been washed
up.'
The touching allusion to the likenesses and letters leads naturally to
the following (further) particulars from the scene of the calamity:--
'MOLFRA BAY, Tuesday, Nov. the 2nd.--It is necessary that the
public should be on their guard against the rumours in circulation
as to the discoveries made by the divers who commenced operations on
Sunday. It was reported as an established fact in Bangor last night
that one of the divers had entered the saloon of the "Royal
Charter," and there found about 200 passengers in the positions they
occupied when the ship went down; some sitting round the table,
others standing upright, and others as if in the act of coming from
their berths. A similar story was told some six or seven years ago,
after the wreck of a large steamer off the Bailey Light, Hill of
Howth. Indeed, in that case, the diver was made to describe some of
the passengers as in the act of lifting glasses to their mouths. The
lie was printed, and obtained very general circulation before it was
contradicted. The less detailed account is in the present case
equally destitute of foundation. Two experienced divers, who came
from Liverpool in the steam-tug "Fury," the property of Gibb,
Brights, and Co., made a descent yesterday, and remained a
considerable time under the water, but they saw no corpses beneath;
neither did they find any gold; but they saw some copper. This
morning they resumed their descents under very favourable
circumstances as regards weather and the state of the sea. They have
discovered no bodies; but up to one o'clock this afternoon they had
succeeded, with the assistance given them by men on board the
steam-tug, in raising about three tons of copper bars. These bars
have undergone some smelting, but are not in a finished state. There
is a good deal of silver mixed with the copper. At one o'clock the
divers suspended operations for a short rest and refreshment. They
resumed after about an hour's interval.
'Some additional articles of wearing apparel, with spars, etc., have
been cast upon the beach. One or two canvas huts have been erected
on the remnants of masts, and in front of one of these such articles
as have names on them, or would otherwise serve for purposes of
identification, are spread out in melancholy array. Amongst them are
seven photographs, two of men, two of ladies, two of children, and
one landscape. None of these have as yet been identified as
portraits of individuals whose friends have arrived at the scene of
the wreck. There is a stocking with the name "Jane Murray," and
another with the name "F. Davis" upon it. There is a portion of a
shirt, with the name "J. E. Smith," and another with the name "R.
Thornhill," followed by the date "1846." A large, coarse wrapper has
the inscription "C. R. Ross, passenger, 'Royal Charter,'" painted in
black letters upon it. On a piece of a shirt, "E. Fenwick;" on
another, "John Lees, 1855." On a piece of a stocking, "T. W.;" and
on a small piece of linen, "T. G." There are a number of visiting
cards spread on a piece of wood: one has the inscription, "Mr.
Eddowes, 146 Cambridge-street, Pimlico;" another, "Mr. Sam. Moxley
Wade, Low, and Cill, Liverpool." On a piece of linen is "James
Davis, Woodside, 1859." The whole scene of the wreck is an extremely
melancholy one; but a peculiarly affecting incident took place
to-day. A poor young woman was searching along the beach to
endeavour to find some trace of her husband, about whose fate she
was uncertain. She discovered a waistcoat which had just been washed
in, and which had been hung up in front of the tent by one of the
coast-guard. Almost frantically, she pulled it down. It proved to be
that of her husband, a man named Barrett, who had been painter
aboard the "Royal Charter." The grief of the poor widow was
heartrending to witness. Some of the standers-by, in an attempt to
comfort her, suggested that she might be mistaken. "Oh, no," said
she, "here is my own work upon it. My husband, my husband! God, look
down upon me!" Amongst those who anxiously inspected this relic was
the Rev. Mr. Lewis, a Wesleyan minister. Two of his brothers were
aboard the ship--one as purser. Their arrival at Queenstown had been
telegraphed to their aged mother, who wrote to the rev. gentleman to
meet them at Liverpool. He now, poor fellow, paces the shore at
Molfra Bay to watch for the dead bodies. Five bodies were washed
ashore at Molfra, and seven at Penmaenmaur yesterday. None of these
have as yet been identified. No bodies have been washed up to-day.
Several of the dead persons have already been interred in Molfra and
Llanallgo churchyards. The wreck remains in precisely the state as
she was on Wednesday last when the coast-guard from Amlwch were put
in charge. At low water a good piece of her hull is visible. At high
water there are only portions of two of the masts. As the officials
along the line of the London and North-Western Railway are besieged
with inquiries as to where Molfra Bay is, it may be as well to state
that the nearest approach to it for any person not in the island of
Anglesey, is from Bangor railway station. It is fourteen miles from
Bangor, over a horrible road, with most expensive posting. There is
no mode of communicating with London from it but through Bangor, and
there are no public conveyances of any kind. But, notwithstanding
this, great numbers are visiting the scene. On the whole, the people
in the neighbourhood are reported to have acted very well. Several
sums of money found by them have been given up to the coast-guard.
The fragments of the spars, and even of the mainmast, seem as if
they had been smashed into small pieces by some crushing blade
impelled by steam power. If an army of giants had fallen to to hew
up the ship it could not have presented a more fragmentary
appearance.'
A correspondent of the _Manchester Guardian_ describes the wreck from
the same stand-point. He says:--
'Immediately after the adjournment of the inquest, on Friday, orders
were given for the interment of the bodies which had been
identified; the remainder were kept throughout the whole of
Saturday, and every hour brought a fresh accession of visitors bent
on the melancholy errand of inquiry after missing friends. The
distortion and disfigurement of the bodies consequent on drowning,
and the absence of clothing, made the examination necessarily more
minute and painful; but in some instances the features and limbs
were mangled from violent dashing against the rocks, and recognition
of friends was almost impossible. Mr. Bradbury, a survivor,
describes one of the young ladies whose bodies were lying in Penrhos
church as the recognized _belle_ of the vessel, and the charm and
admiration of a large circle. Mrs. Foster, who is among the lost,
had gone to Australia to superintend the sale of some land, and it
is conjectured that she had with her the whole of the proceeds of
the sale. Her companion, Mrs. Woodroff, who has been identified, was
the wife of an innkeeper in Melbourne: her husband is expected to
follow her. Among the company at Bangor was an elderly gentleman
from Gloucestershire, named Wright, who had heard of the wreck at
Liverpool, where he had come in expectation of meeting his son, Mr.
Iles Wright, of Evesham, who was the surgeon of the ship, and who
had written from Queenstown anticipatory of his arrival.
'At low water the remaining portion of the hull of the vessel is
quite discernible, and when the neap tides prevail it is expected
that much of the treasure and many more bodies will be recovered.
The fact that so few, proportionately to the number lost, have been
recovered has occasioned much wonder, and is variously accounted
for. The partition of the vessel is supposed by some to have
enclosed the bodies as in a box. The _débris_ of the wreck lies
scattered about the shore, the woodwork being literally nothing but
chips. The exact position of the wreck is about a mile and a half
from the Llanallgo church, where most of the bodies are lying. The
Anglesea militia, the coast-guard, and a body of police are placed
there for the protection of the property washed on shore, and a
temporary shed is constructed on the shore. The nearest dwellings to
the wreck are at Molfra village, which is more than half a mile from
the spot. Captain Fell and a staff from Lloyd's are located there.
At the inquest, which is adjourned to Wednesday, a strict
examination is expected to take place into the statement made of the
captain being intoxicated at the time of the fearful disaster. The
statement is broadly made by some of the survivors; but the owners
of the vessel and some nautical men say they can triumphantly
vindicate the memory of the deceased.
'Among the Lancashire people lost in the vessel whose friends came
to seek for them on hearing of the wreck, were Mr. Casper Lewin,
nephew of Mr. Adam Casper, of Market Street, Manchester; Miss
Wrigley, Byron Street, Manchester; Mr. and Mrs. Kirkbride,
Liverpool; and Mrs. Robinson, of Southport, wife of the editor of
one of the Melbourne newspapers.'
In a letter dated 'Molfra, Wednesday afternoon,' another writer
says:--
'Four more bodies, all males, have been cast ashore since my
communication of yesterday--one last night and three this morning.
Three of them are now lying in the parish church of Llanallgo; the
remaining body has been removed to the church of Penrhos Lligny,
having been thrown ashore in the latter parish. All yesterday
evening a very heavy sea rolled; and about four o'clock the
lifeboat, manned by a crew of eight, put out to rescue those on
board a brigantine, which was observed to be rapidly approaching the
rocks a little to the north of the spot in Dulas Bay, in which the
wreck of the "Royal Charter" lies. The brigantine, however, got
safely in on the sands, in a little creek about a mile from Molfra,
where she now lies. As the waves beat violently in on the Dulas
Rocks last evening, large quantities of clothing were to be seen
tossed about. Some of it was cast ashore, but a great deal was
carried out to sea again. It has been suggested by some of the
relatives of the drowned passengers and seamen, that if boats were
sent out many more bodies would be recovered. I think this extremely
likely, after what I have witnessed with respect to the action of
the waves on the clothing and spars. The Rev. Mr. Hughes is about to
take the matter in hand. There has been some objection on the part
of the authorities, as they apprehend that thefts might be committed
by some of the persons going out in the boats; but if rumour speaks
truly the watchers themselves require watching. It is unfair to make
charges against men having a responsible duty to perform, but one
of the police inspectors has told me that he himself caught a
coast-guardsman in the act of thieving. _Friends and relatives
complain that there is more anxiety to discover gold than bodies_;
but the fact is no gold has as yet been discovered by the divers.
They recommenced operations at ten o'clock this morning, but have
brought up nothing but copper bars. Fathers, mothers, wives,
children, and other relatives pace the beach from an early hour in
the morning. Yesterday delicate women braved the rain and storm all
day, making their melancholy search. Every now and then I was met by
persons with sorrowful faces, one inquiring, "Have you seen any
trace of my husband? his name was ----;" or "Have you found anything
with the name of ----? she was my child." Indeed, it is a
heartrending thing to go near the beach, and to see these mourners,
and to meet the carts carrying the mangled corpses, or the parish
coffins in which they are to be interred. None of the bodies found
last night have been identified. Forty-five bodies have been
discovered up to this time.'
The tone of one part of that communication leads naturally to the
following stinging words from a Liverpool journal:--
'Loud are the complaints here at the manner in which those saved
from the wreck were treated after their arrival here. It is said,
with great indignation, that when Captain Martin (the representative
of Messrs. Gibb and Brights) arrived here, with the rescued
passengers, in the steam-tug which had been despatched to the scene
of the wreck, he left them standing upon the landing-stage; and had
they not been received at the Sailors' Home, they would have had to
wander all night about the streets.'
This, of a verity, is caring more for gold than human bodies. One
would have thought the best accommodation the best hotel in Liverpool
could afford would have been prepared by the owners of the wrecked
vessel in anticipation of the arrival of the poor creatures whose all,
save life, had been buried beneath the waves.
In penning my narrative up to this point, it is impossible but that
the reader should have felt a large amount of interest in the captain
and officers of the vessel. Whatever mistake of those in command may
have brought the ship so near the coast, the heart of every one must
swell as he reads how heroically the storm was coped with. 'First
killed,' or 'last seen on the ship,' are phrases that, like the
noblest epitaphs, are associated with the captain and his officers.
They succumbed, after glorious battling, to the fate of the sailor;
but to show how ill the world could afford to lose such men let me
endeavour, in a few concluding lines, to portray them to the reader.
Brave and rugged as a lion was the captain. His defiant front, his
curt, honest conversation, his implacable will, which, like a wave,
bore down all before it; his natural humour and intense love of
jollity; his large solicitude for his passengers and crew; his all but
feminine love for his ship, and his fervent belief that no other craft
was fit to touch the waters with her,--all these points grow upon me
as I write, and cause me to blur the paper as I lash them to the name
of Thomas Taylor. I do not believe that man was drunk on the evening
of the calamity. This, however, I know, that to those who were not in
constant communication with him, Captain Taylor _always_ appeared
drunk. He had a ruddy face, a quick, abrupt manner, and a husky
utterance which, to the superficial observer, naturally proclaimed him
intoxicated. This concludes on that head: _I_ never saw Captain Taylor
the worse for liquor during our passage home. On the other hand, I
heard him pronounced drunk by second and third class passengers
nightly.
Mr. Stevens, the first officer, was a fine young fellow of some thirty
summers. He was a most agreeable companion, delighted in song or
dance, and if he got a quiet moment with a friend, would talk by the
hour of the young wife and little-ones he had left at home. He made
every one his friend--was a friend to every one.
Mr. Cowie, the second officer (he was third when I came home) was
like a character out of Marryat. He was about three or four and twenty
years of age, was as bold and bluff as the captain; and was never so
delighted as when he was singing 'Hearts of Oak' in the cock-pit.
Mr. Rogers, the chief engineer, was a man of rough exterior, but of
simple, child-like manners. His whole time during _my_ sojourn on the
ship was spent in looking after the engines, and entering into amusing
discussions with the purser on the right pronunciation of words. Poor
fellow!
The purser (Mr. Lewis) was one of the best men that ever walked the
earth. He did justice to passengers and owners, and at the time when
we ran short of food, I knew him, with all the ship's stores at his
command, to abstain from dinner, that the children of the intermediate
and steerage passengers might in turn receive his share of the slender
stock of dainties left to us on board. He has gone where stewards
cease from troubling!
But why continue these memorials of the dead? We call on the names of
the good and brave men in vain. Saddest of all sad stories is that
which I have attempted to tell. The cheek of the boldest grows pale as
he reads it, and my pen falls from my fingers as the old familiar
faces rise before me.