Part 4

'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.

THE PRESS ON THE CATASTROPHE.

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 passage in two months as near as may be. On Monday morning she passed Queenstown, and thirteen of the passengers landed in a pilot-boat. The next day the "Royal Charter" took on board from a steam-tug eleven riggers who had been assisting in working a ship to Cardiff. Thus, at the time of the calamity there were on board 498 persons, and of these only 39 were saved. The ship, as we are informed, had on board but a small cargo, mainly of wool and skins. A more important item of her freight was gold and specie, which at the lowest estimate is put at 500,000_l._ On Tuesday evening there was blowing from the E.N.E. a violent gale, which fell with full force on the ill-fated ship. She arrived off Point Lynas at six o'clock in the evening of Tuesday, and for several hours Captain Taylor continued throwing up signal rockets, in the hope of attracting the attention of a pilot. None made his appearance. The gale increased in violence; the ship was making leeway, and drifting gradually towards the beach. It was pitch dark; no help was at hand. The captain let go both anchors, but the gale had now increased to a hurricane, and had lashed the sea up to madness. The chains parted, and, notwithstanding that the engines were worked at their full power, the "Royal Charter" continued to drift towards the shore. At three A.M. she struck the rocks in four fathoms of water. The passengers till this moment had no idea of the imminence of their peril. The masts and rigging were cut adrift, but this gave no relief. The ship continued to grind and dash upon the rocks. The screw became foul with the drift spars and rigging, and ceased to act. The consequence was, that the ship was thrown broadside on to the rocks, and now the terror began. The officers of the ship either hoped against hope, or endeavoured to alleviate the agony of the passengers by assuring them there was no immediate danger. A Portuguese sailor, Joseph Rogers--his name deserves to be recorded--volunteered to convey a rope on shore through the heavy surf, and succeeded in his attempt. Had time been given no doubt every person on board could now have been safely conveyed on shore; but it was fated that the end should be otherwise. One tremendous wave came after another, playing with the "Royal Charter" like a toy, and swinging her about on the rocks. She divided amidships, and wellnigh all on board were swept into the furious sea. A few minutes afterwards she also parted at the forehatch, and then there was an end. Those who were not killed by the sea were killed by the breaking up of the ship. In the course of a very few moments the work was done, and four hundred and fifty-nine persons were numbered among the dead. It was about seven A.M. on Wednesday that she broke up.

'It is said by those who have visited the scene of the calamity that never was destruction more complete. The ironwork of the vessel is in mere shreds; the woodwork is in chips. The coast and the fields above the cliffs are strewn with fragments of the cargo and of the bedding and clothing. In the words of one of our reports, "A more complete annihilation of a noble vessel never occurred on our coast." Worse still, the rocks are covered with corpses of men and women frightfully mutilated, and strewn with the sovereigns which the poor creatures had gone so far to seek, and which were now torn from them in so pitiful a way. Of course, as is usual in all such cases, the reasons given for the occurrence of the calamity are various. In one account we see it attributed to the order given before midnight to veer out on the starboard cable. This, as it is said, brought too much strain upon the port cable, which parted, and then the other parted also, and then the ship drifted ashore. Others tell us that if the screw had not been fouled by the drift rigging and spars, the "Royal Charter" might have been saved. These, however, could have been but secondary and minor causes. The origin of the calamity seems to have been that in a wild night, with a gale blowing that soon became a hurricane, the ship was brought up dangerously near a lee shore. Let it be remembered, however, that Captain Taylor was the last man seen alive on board.'

The _Morning Herald_, after chronicling the disaster, concludes with this valuable paragraph:--