Shipwreck!Charles Dickens & ‘The Royal Charter’
£5.95 (plus 90p postage within UK)
Of all the ships wrecked during the great storm of October 1859, the loss of the steam clipper Royal Charter off the little Anglesey village of Moelfre was the most disastrous. More than four hundred men, women and children—returning home from the goldfields of Australia—were drowned and dashed against the rocks.
The novelist Charles Dickens, then at the height of his fame, visited Anglesey to report the aftermath of the tragedy. ‘The Shipwreck’ was first published in Dickens’s magazine All the Year Round, and later collected in his book The Uncommercial Traveller. The moving text is reproduced in full, together with a new introduction and many illustrations, including a facsimile of a letter written to his host in Anglesey, Stephen Roose Hughes, Rector of Llanallgo parish church where many of the shipwreck victims were buried.
The impact of the ‘Royal Charter Storm’ went far beyond the victims and their relatives, leading to the introduction of the first storm warnings, weather forecasting and other measures to improve the safety of ships, their crews and their passengers. The book’s brief afterword covers these developments.
“The book is full of fascinating information and is attractively illustrated. A considerable amount of new material is included, the accounts from contemporary newspapers being a particularly nice addition. The cover picture, taken from the Illustrated London News of 5th November, 1859, is really striking, and I was also impressed by the reproduction of Joseph Josiah Dodd’s 1872 painting, ‘The Royal Charter at Low Water’ as a two-page spread. It is evident that considerable thought has been given to the design and contents of the revised edition, and Llyfrau Magma can be proud of their achievement.”
— from a review in the ‘Transactions’ of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society & Field Club.
Page size 175mm wide x 235mm high; 24 pages plus an extended eight-page cover.