'One of those awful calamities which carry mourning and desolation
to hundreds of hearths, hearts, and homes--which send a pang not
only through the bosoms of bereaved relatives, but cast a gloom over
every thoughtful and feeling mind, has just visited us in the wreck
and total loss of a noble steamer, the "Royal Charter," which
perished with more than 400 souls, on the Welsh coast, on the night
of Tuesday last. There are circumstances which add largely to the
melancholy facts, so far as they are yet known of this dreadful
disaster. The stately steam-ship, with her rich freight and her
numerous passengers, had gallantly ploughed the waters of the broad
Pacific and breasted the waves of the rude Atlantic; she had sighted
the noble haven of Queenstown; and there, fondly dreaming the perils
of the deep were past, her joyful passengers had voted a testimonial
of gratitude to the commander of the gallant ship, who had so far
safely brought them from their far port of homeward departure at the
antipodes. Among these 450 passengers and crew, how many anxious
hearts already in anticipation embraced expectant kindred and
friends!--how many--the "battle of life" fought out successfully,
and competency gained--looked for that native shore, which they were
only to see with despairing eyes in their death-struggle, as the
haven of a peaceful life, to be closed by a calm death among those
they loved best, in the land of their birth! We can well imagine the
buoyant spirits of the young, and the calmer joy of the old, at the
near prospect of the happy close of their long sojourn on the wide
waters. But He, in whose hands are the issues of life and death,
willed otherwise. The ship left the shores of Ireland on Monday
last, all well; on Tuesday a gale arose, which towards night became
a tempest of surpassing violence. The doomed vessel was driven
towards the Welsh coast, and there her fate was sealed. There is at
present no reason to suppose that in this sad disaster any want of
precaution; any undue effort to effect a speedy passage by running a
dangerous course; any miscalculation of rate of sailing, deviation
of compass, or other neglect or accident, contributed to the
lamentable catastrophe. It seems to have been one of those
calamities beyond human foresight or wisdom to avert, to which we
must bow the head in silent resignation, not, however, without
thoughtful consideration as to whether human means might not have
mitigated the sufferings of the wrecked, or diminished the loss of
life. We are as yet without sufficient data to know whether a more
efficient life-boat service at this part of the coast, a supply of
life-lines, coast-mortars, &c., at the principal places near
Moelfra, at Beaumaris, Penmanmawr, might not have enabled us to add
to the scant list of the rescued sufferers. We repeat, we are as yet
without details, and write merely in presence of an overwhelming
calamity, hopeful that so solemn a warning to be prepared may have
its effect, while yet the grief is new, of producing an increased
energy in doing all that may be done by liberality and skill to save
the lives of our brave seamen, and of those who "go down into the
great waters." The steamship "Royal Charter," the loss of which has
given occasion for these remarks, was a nearly new and splendid
screw steamer. She had on freight 79,000 ounces of gold, valued at
316,000_l._, besides a large amount of gold and valuables belonging
to her 450 passengers and crew. She sailed from Melbourne on the
26th of August, with 60 cabin passengers, ten of whom are saved, and
ten others, we are happy to say, are reported as having been landed
at Queenstown. Of the seamen 25 survive, thus leaving nearly 400
souls, including Captain Taylor and all the officers of the
ill-fated ship, sharers in her sad fate.'
The _Standard_ touches on the event with its usual calmness of
utterance:--
'But as the approach to Liverpool was more alive with shipping, of
course the most terrible of the disasters were to be expected off
the coast of Wales; and there has seldom been recorded a more awful
wreck than that of the "Royal Charter" in Red Wharf Bay, near
Bangor. The "Royal Charter," a very splendid vessel, left Melbourne
on the 26th of August, having on board about five hundred souls, and
carrying seventy-five thousand ounces of gold. The power of the
vessel may be concluded from the fact that she made Cork Harbour in
less than two months. At this port some ten or a dozen of the
passengers had the fortune to quit her, and she proceeded on her way
to Liverpool as far as the Welsh coast, where she was overtaken by
the terrible storm of Wednesday morning, and utterly lost in a wild
bay some seven miles to the north-west of Beaumaris, and about three
miles west of Puffin Island, in Anglesea. The circumstances are
surrounded with unusual suspense and terror, for the railway has
been at several points washed away, the embankment thrown down, and
the action of the telegraph stopped. We are, in fact, acquainted
with only the details of the distressing disaster which we have
presented yesterday, and present elsewhere to-day. The rapidity of
the voyage had led the passengers to offer to unfortunate Captain
Taylor a testimonial, and everything in the shape of danger was
taken naturally to be at an end when the unfortunate ship went down
in sight of her port.'
The _Telegraph_ proposes the speedy exaltation of the sailor who swam
ashore with the rope:--
'The passengers were crowded in the saloon, where the scene was of
the most heartrending description. Children and parents, husbands
and wives, were clinging to each other in despairing embraces. The
captain endeavoured, hoping against hope, to reassure those under
his charge. Mr. Hodge, a missionary from New Zealand, did his best
to administer religious consolation, but the victory was on that
black Wednesday morning with the demon of the storm. A succession of
tremendous waves swung the "Royal Charter" from the rocks, and she
parted, first amidships and then longitudinally, and was soon but a
mass of shapeless spars, eddying about in a briny maelstrom. All the
officers, save, as we mentioned yesterday, the carpenter and a
boatswain's mate, perished. Captain Taylor was the last man seen
alive on board. A few of the crew saved themselves; the remainder
were hurled upon the rocks, and suffered a speedy but agonizing
death. It is some miserable consolation, however, to record that
between thirty and forty of the passengers and seamen were enabled
to save their lives by means of the hawser, rigged at the peril of
his life by the man described as a Negro. If this hero, foreigner
and civilian as he may be, does not deserve the Order of Valour,
Horatio Nelson was a coward, and Bayard was false and craven.'
The _Observer_ has a leader which, dealing with what may be termed the
technics of the matter, stands out from the mass of articles which
have appeared in the weekly papers:--
'The disastrous wreck of the "Royal Charter" is one of those
calamities that come upon us now and then, at intervals, to remind
us of the insignificance of man and his grandest works, when opposed
to the mighty forces of Nature. There has seldom happened such an
amount of destruction in one single storm of short duration as was
effected amongst the shipping upon the coasts of this island on
Tuesday night; but the list of mortality in that terrible conflict
with the elements is swollen to a lamentable extent by the four
hundred and sixty souls who perished at that one fell swoop. This
wreck is another illustration of the well-marked fact that all the
perils of long voyages across the broad ocean are little in
comparison with those that beset the mariner in leaving or
approaching these shores. The "Royal Charter" was a noble specimen
of the clippers employed in our great Australian trade, and had made
several prosperous voyages, of which the last, if it had ended
happily, would have been the most remarkable for rapidity. Iron
built, supplied with all the improvements of modern shipbuilding,
aided with the auxiliary power of steam, and manned with a
sufficient crew, well officered and commanded, it would have seemed
almost out of the range of probability that such a ship should have
been drifted upon a lee shore in a familiar locality by a gradually
increasing storm, and there shattered to fragments, and engulfed,
with well nigh all her human freight, within a few hours' sail of
her own port. In reading the account of this wreck we cannot escape
the conviction that the possession of auxiliary steam power, which
should have been her safety, was really the cause of the "Royal
Charter's" loss. This vessel was of nearly 3,000 tons burden. The
engines by which her screw propeller was worked were only of 300'
[only of 200] 'horse power. Such a power was enough for working a
vessel over the tropical calms, or aiding her progress now and then
in light winds, but it was a treacherous reliance in such a position
as she was allowed to get into on Tuesday evening. It was useless
for contending against the furious pressure of the hurricane that
was surely driving her upon the jagged rocks of Dulas Bay, whilst
the structure of the ship was greatly weakened by the dead weight of
the engines and the open spaces necessary to contain them.
'Captain Taylor was evidently an able and courageous seaman. He
animated all his officers and crew to maintain discipline and
continue their exertions to the latest moment, and it is with no
desire to suggest blame that we express the belief that but for
relying on the power of his screw to keep the vessel off, he would
never have been in the position he was on that fatal Tuesday
evening, when on a rugged lee shore he was losing precious hours
endeavouring to procure a pilot. Either a safe port or the open sea
were the only situations that could give security in a hurricane
like that of Tuesday. There seemed to be a fatality attending the
last voyage of the ill-fated ship that was to pursue her crew and
passengers to the extremity of destruction, for the rapidity of her
passage brought her upon the most perilous part of our coast that
she had to near, just at the outbreak of the most violent storm we
have experienced for very many years, and after striking upon the
shore, her hull succumbed to the fury of the waves, and became rent
and shattered almost in a moment, just as a communication had been
established, by means of the hawser passed to the shore, that
promised the fairest chance of saving the lives of all on board. The
gallant action of the seaman who performed this feat, all but too
late as it proved to be, was the means of saving many of the
thirty-nine, who were all that escaped out of near five hundred.
'The records of shipwrecks upon the coast of Great Britain have been
carefully compiled for some years past, and the annual number of
vessels totally lost is known to range from 1000 to 1200. Of these,
however, a very large proportion are small craft, coasting traders,
and colliers, whose short voyages generally keep them in dangerous
proximity to the shore, and whose crews are often insufficient for
working them successfully out of a sudden emergency. This year,
there will be a terrible excess over the average losses. The
destruction of vessels in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday
amounts, according to what is already known, to hundreds; whilst the
loss of life by the "Royal Charter," which, though the greatest, is
only one amongst a numerous list of such losses, will vastly
increase the average mortality. The sacrifices even of human life,
demanded and paid in the pursuit of our peaceful commerce, are not
less appalling sometimes than those which render war terrible. This
storm gives us a longer list of lives lost in a few hours on the
English coast than has been the result of many a mighty battle.'
Many other articles have appeared in the English journals; but those
here given will speak for the scope and tone of them all. British
sympathy was never perhaps more intensely quickened than it has been
by this unparalleled marine disaster. It is the topic of every tongue.
From almost every pulpit the subject was dwelt upon last Sunday. Mr.
Binney, who narrowly escaped coming home in the ship, preached with
pathetic power on the melancholy event of the week. Prayer was put up
for his miraculous preservation. Many good men have gone, but the blow
to Both Worlds--the Old and the New--would have been severe indeed if
the 'old man eloquent' had perished.