Loss of the Royal Charter, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer tells of a shipwreck near Ireland. 400 passengers sail from Melbourne and are approaching home (and have already dropped off some passengers) when a storm hits. The singer describes the storm, the wreck, and the deaths
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship storm wreck disaster death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Oct 1859 - Wreck of the Royal Charter off Anglesey (on her way from Liverpool to Australia); 454 of those aboard were lost and only 39 saved (source: Palmer)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H623, pp. 109-110, "The Loss of the Royal Charter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9040
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(95), "Loss of the Royal Charter," unknown, no date
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Royal Charter" (subject)
NOTES [200 words]: Curiously, this song is a first-person account of a passenger on the Charter, and yet it says that "all on board would meet a watery grave."
Although I assume the ship described in this song is the same as that in "The Wreck of the Royal Charter," the lyrics are so different that I think they are separate songs. Roud also splits them. I'm not confident about it, though, and indeed Roud seems to confuse them, filing Bodleian Firth c 12(95) with the "Wreck" even though it appears to be a version of the "Loss."
According to Lincoln P. Paine, Ships of the World: An Historical Encylopedia, Houghton Mifflin, 1997, pp. 438-439, the Royal Charter was built in 1855, and was "One of the finest passenger ships of the day... [and was] the first English ship to carry double topsails." On her last trip she left Melbourne with 511 passengers and crew, which was effectively equal to her capacity. She arrived safely at Queenstown, Ireland, 58 days later, and let off 17 passengers. The next night, as the passed Moelfre, Anglesey, she ran into a severe storm. Captain T. Taylor dropped anchor at 10:45 p.m., but the cables broke at 3:30 a.m., and she was driven ashore. 455 people were lost. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HHH623

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