This little book is prepared under the conditions of saving the Mail which leaves England on the 12th, and of being a complete narrative of the Wreck. The one condition is adverse to the other; but I have endeavoured to meet them both. F. London, November the Eighth, 1859....

The prints of Tuesday, the 25th of October, contained this brief telegram:— ‘ Queenstown. —The “Royal Charter,” from Melbourne, fifty-eight days out, is off this port. She expects to be at Liverpool tomorrow night.’ In the Times of Thursday, the 27th, appeared the following:— ‘A telegraphic despatch has reached us as we are going to press, announcing the loss, on her way from Queenstown to Liverpool, of the “Royal Charter,” with over four hundred passengers on board, of which number only about t

The Times , after some preliminary observations on the gale of Wednesday, contents itself with a general record of the calamity:— ‘The “Royal Charter” was built about four years ago; she was of 2,719 tons register, and 200 horse power. Her owners were Messrs. Gibb, Brights, and Co., of Liverpool. She was an iron vessel, worked by a screw. On the 26th of August last she sailed from Melbourne, having on board 388 passengers, and a crew, including officers, of 112 persons. She accomplished her pass

The following list of steerage passengers is supplied by Mr. Lynch, of Cashel, who was one of the fortunate passengers who landed at Queenstown. The list is from memory:— ‘Mr. Holland , wife and three children; had been in India, and was in the volunteer corps. Two brothers named Hogarth , from Scotland; one was married, and had a little boy about eight years old. Mr. and Mrs. Lyons , from London, had two sons, one about ten and the other about twelve. Mr. Lyons was a watchmaker. Mrs. Atkey , so

It will be recollected that the late Dr. Scoresby—who made himself so great a name in the history of Arctic discovery—went round the world in the ‘Royal Charter’ in order to study the deviation of compasses in iron ships. The fine old sailor in his posthumous work [D] thus speaks of the ship and her performances:— [D] ‘Journal of a Voyage to Australia and Round the World, for Magnetical Research.’ [Back to text] ‘Now, as to the action and performance of the “Royal Charter” under this hard gale a

‘The rev. gentleman was appointed to the vicarage of Clareborough in 1844, and shortly afterwards his wife, from some unsettled disposition, proposed to visit some distant relation in New Zealand. Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of her husband, she proceeded to the antipodes without a guide, protector, or friend. After remaining some years there, she returned to this country, and again took up her residence with her husband and children, of whom she was the mother of ten—seven sons and thr

When the inquest (see p. 34 ) was adjourned, every one imagined the inquiry would be of a most searching character. The calamity was of a nature which demanded the fullest investigation; and the public naturally expected that an officer from the Board of Trade would be despatched to Molfra to watch the proceedings. How these notions have been realized will be gathered from the following remarks which appeared in the Manchester Guardian of November the 4th:—‘Our readers will peruse with deep and

[G] There is a want of sequaciousness in the arrangement of these Addenda which the exigencies of a hurried publication can alone justify. [Back to text] The latest particulars (Nov. the 7th) from the scene of the wreck which can be here incorporated are these:— ‘The divers found one body yesterday forenoon, and some copper, but no specie. No bodies have been cast ashore last night or this morning. Up to the present moment forty-eight bodies have been recovered, but of these few have been identi

I have been for the last thirty-six hours (the time allowed me) preparing this book. I have had to wade through a mass of most mournful material. The labour has certainly not been a grateful one; but perhaps my friends in the Australian Colonies will rightly appreciate the motives which have induced me to supply them with a reliable history of the Wreck. F. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET. Transcriber’s Note As much of the book contains material quoted from other sour