No one will forget the dreadful loss of the _Royal Charter_ on the Welsh
coast, when, out of 490 souls on board, not more than 25 persons came on
shore alive; but many may not recollect that it was owing, under
Providence, to the bravery, presence of mind, and strength of one man
that even these few were saved. When the ship struck on the rocks, the
sea instantly broke over her with fearful violence, filling the
intermediate space between her and the shore with broken spars and
fragments of the wreck; while the waves burst with fury on the hard
rocks, and then rushed back again, to hurl with redoubled force on the
iron shore the objects which they had gathered up in their forward
course. Pitchy darkness added to the horror of the scene and the danger
to be encountered by the hapless passengers and crew of the ill-fated
ship. Among the ship's company was a Maltese, Joseph Rogers--a
first-rate swimmer, as are many of the inhabitants of the island in
which he was born. To attempt to swim on shore in that boiling caldron
was full of danger, though he might have felt that he could accomplish
it; but the difficulty and danger would be far greater should the
swimmer's progress be impeded by a rope. In spite of that, thinking
only how he might save the lives of those on board the ship to which he
belonged, taking a line in hand, he plunged boldly into the foaming sea.
On he swam; the darkness prevented him from being seen, but those on
board felt the rope gradually hauled out. Anxiously all watched the
progress of that line, for on the success of that bold swimmer the lives
of all might depend. If he failed, who could hope to succeed? At
length they felt it tightened, and they knew that it was being hauled up
by many strong hands on shore. Now a stout rope was fastened to the
line, and that being hauled on shore was secured, and a cradle was
placed on it. No time was to be lost. The large ship was striking with
terrible violence on the rocks, it appearing that every instant would be
her last. One after the other, the people on board hastened into the
cradle--as many as dared to make the hazardous passage. Ten, fifteen,
twenty landed--the twenty-fifth person had just reached the shore, when,
with a horrible crash, the ship parted, breaking into fragments, and 454
persons were hurried in a moment into eternity. Even Rogers, brave
swimmer as he was, could not have survived had he attempted to swim
among those wreck-covered waves. For his heroic courage the National
Lifeboat Institution awarded the gold medal to Rogers and a gratuity of
5 pounds.