THE ROYAL CHARTER STORM

 

The Royal Charter storm

Which blew up out of the Irish Sea

Takes its name from one ship

Out of the 133 ships

Sunk on the 25 and 26 October 1859

With a further 80 damaged

And a death toll of 800

EAST INDIAMAN ARNISTON

 

The Arniston was an East Indiaman

But had been requisitioned as a troopship

She was sailing from Ceylon to England

To repatriate soldiers wounded in the Kandyan Wars

When during a storm near Cape Agulhas, South Africa

She was wrecked at Waenhuiskrans on 30 May 1815

With only six surviving of the 378 aboard

HMS BIRKENHEAD

 

HMS Birkenhead began life

As a steam frigate

One of the first iron-hulled vessels

Built for the Royal Navy

But she was quickly converted

And was commissioned as a troopship

It was as such on 26 February 1852

While transporting troops to Algoa Bay,

She was wrecked at Danger Point

Near to Gansbaai

100 miles from Cape Town,

With insufficient serviceable lifeboats

For all the passengers.

This gave rise to the most disciplined

Act of self-sacrifice ever witnessed

Described in verse by Rudyard Kipling

As the "Birkenhead drill"

Where the soldiers famously stood firm,

In serried ranks and allowed

The women and children

To safely board the boats

The courage and chivalry

Of the noble soldiers

In the face of certain death

Gave rise to the now accepted practice

When abandoning ship

Of “Women and children first”

And 550 men perished in the sea

L&ASNC ROYAL CHARTER

 

The steamship Royal Charter

Was returning to Liverpool

In late October 1859

Laden with gold

And Nuevo riche prospectors

From the Australian goldfields.

 

It was recommended to

Thomas Taylor, Captain

To put into Holyhead harbour

To wait out the storm

But having thus far

Made good time from Melbourne

He wanted to press on to Liverpool

 

As she rounded Anglesey’s

North-western tip

The barometer dropped

The squall quickly grew

And reached Storm force 10

On the Beaufort scale

The Royal Charter tried,

Off Point Lynas,

To pick up the Liverpool pilot

To guide them to safety

But the wind had risen

To Hurricane force 12

And was driving her

Towards the Anglesey coast

The Captain dropped anchor

But within two hours

Both anchor chains had snapped

And on 26 October 1859

The steam clipper Royal Charter

Broke up on the rocks near Moelfre

 

Despite the heroic efforts

From the people of Anglesey

Less than 40 survived

From the 450 passengers and crew