The Wreck of the "Royal Charter": Compiled from Authentic Sources, with Some Original MatterFowler, Frank
History
The Wreck of the "Royal Charter": Compiled from Authentic Sources, with Some Original Matter
Fowler, Frank
Royal Charter (Ship); Shipwrecks -- Wales -- Anglesey
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 painful interest the report we give
to-day of the evidence adduced at the Llanallgo inquest. The
statements of the survivors examined yesterday and the day before add
but little perhaps to the information we were already in possession of
as to the general features of the wreck of the "Royal Charter," but
many details of a personal nature are given, and thus the several
narratives are invested with a peculiar fascination. It will be
observed that the statement that Captain Taylor was intoxicated at the
terrible moment that his ship was drifting on to destruction is
repudiated by all the witnesses who have hitherto been examined, and
that they bear the highest testimony to his courageous attitude from
the commencement of the storm down to the time when the vessel broke
up. He was always at his post, and they express their firm conviction
that everything was done which good seamanship could suggest. To their
testimony is added that of one of the passengers landed at Queenstown.
Mr. J. M'Envoy writes:--"Of all men I ever met, he was the most sober.
I cannot recollect an occasion on the voyage when he exceeded the
strictest bounds of temperance; he was always true to his duty,
devoting his abilities and his attention to the safe guidance of the
ship." If we may judge from the character of the proceedings so far,
it is highly probable that the Llanallgo inquest will be eminently
unsatisfactory. The jury is composed of Welshmen, and the evidence has
first to be written down--in English of course--by the Coroner, and
afterwards translated by an interpreter. This must prove a very
tedious process, but it will cause less concern than the behaviour of
the jurors. These gentlemen do not appear to appreciate, in the most
remote degree, the serious importance of the duty they have been
called upon to perform; they have to be watched like schoolboys by a
policeman, and, indeed, this latter functionary seems as much inclined
as his wards to steal out of the schoolroom whenever an opportunity
presents itself. We do not always perhaps expect to find Coroners'
Juries composed of the most intelligent men of the community; but we
cannot help observing that these Welshmen have conducted themselves
with a clownish levity which, in the interest of the public, we must
stigmatize as utterly disgraceful.'
The tone of this is fully justified, as the reader will admit when he
has perused the following:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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