“Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire… I know I’m far from alone in feeling a little thrill whenever those words come on the radio. To the uninitiated, the Shipping Forecast can seem a little bit eccentric…” So started a double page spread last week in Express newspaper titled “How the Shipping Forecast became a beloved British tradition over the last century“, which was extolling a recent book The Shipping Forecast, by Meg Clothier.

In 1859, a storm wrecked the Royal Charter, a steam clipper returning from Australia, on a jagged stretch of Welsh coast. Some 450 people drowned when the ship broke up... The nation was horrified – Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy … hustled hard to head up a brand new government department … know today as the Met Office. His plan was simple. Thirteen ports around the coast of Britain and Ireland sent weather information via state-of-the-art electric telegraph with which he drew up detailed charts. If they suggested a gale was in the offing, he zapped a revolutionary warning back to the coast by coffee time. Harbour masters then hoisted a special combination of drums and cones to alert seafarers about the imminent danger. It worked. Lives were saved and FitzRoy became a national celebrity … but the government started to grumble that it was all costing too much money and his gale warnings were axed. They were relaunched on the radio in January 1924 …

The Royal Charter was owned and operated by Gibbs Bright & Co. under the subsidiary company ‘Liverpool and Australia Steam Navigation Company’. One of the finest ships of its day, slightly longer and faster than the SS Great Britain, but very similar in many ways, both of them running on the Liverpool to Melbourne route at the height of the Australian gold-rush.

I am intrigued that none of the history books I have of our family mention The Royal Charter! Is this because it was owned by Gibbs Bright & Co, and George Gibbs line had no descendants … or was it a case of painful amnesia? It does however feature in Primrose Bright’s fabulous recent ‘Tales of Opportunity‘ (of which I wrote previously).

Gold was stuck near Ballarat, inland from Melbourne, in 1851 (only 3 years after the California Gold Rush) and started a huge influx of people seeking their fortune, with 290,000 from the British Isles alone by 1860. Gibbs Bright & Co acted as agents for shipping lines but in around 1850 became ship owners themselves, having at least eight vessels on the Australia run. Their ship the ‘Albatross’ was the first ship to land gold from Australia at Liverpool in Aug 1852.

The recently acquired SS Great Britain (see previous post – now a museum ship in Bristol harbour) was diverted from its intended New York run (to provide a London to America service via Great Western Railway to Bristol followed by luxury liner to NY) and operated on the England to Australia route for almost 30 years, carrying over 30,000 passengers during her working life.

Reginald Bright sailed to Melbourne on the SS Great Britain’s first voyage there in 1852, aged 19, after a short training at Gibbs, Bright & Co Bristol office. Joined by his brother Charles Edward in 1853, they opened their Australian Branch as insurance, shipping and general agents, titled ‘Bright Brothers & Co’. Gibbs Bright & Co. was absorbed into Antony Gibbs & Sons in 1881, retaining the name in Australia. At Antony Gibbs & Co. end in 1981 there was still a Bright and a Gibbs as the Managing Directors of Gibbs Bright & Co in Melbourne, Australia!

Gibbs Bright & Co. had bought the SS Great Britain at a bargain price when it had run aground after only a few runs and the owners were bankrupted. A few years later a similar opportunity arose when the Royal Charter ship was being constructed on the river Dee outside Chester. It was built as a sister ship to the ill-fated ‘John-Tayleur’ which was wrecked off Ireland on its first trip out of Liverpool. Was this due to the effect of the iron hull of these ships on the magnetic compass? The traumatised owners wanted nothing more to do with iron ships, and Gibbs Bright & Co. bought the hull. They employed the same engineer as the SS Great Britain, William Patterson, to make significant alterations for the Australia run, lengthened to 30ft longer than SS-Great Britain. A fast hybrid iron-hulled clipper mainly powered by sail and wind, with a screw propeller that could be lowered into the water and powered by steam when the wind was lacking – ships at that time could not carry enough coal to complete the long journey to Australia. She was launched sideways on the River Dee on 30 July 1855 by Mrs Samuel Bright and completed her first Liverpool to Melbourne round voyage in August 1856 in under 60 days outbound. Considerably faster than the normal sailing ships – a major advertising point!

On her fourth round trip, 59 days out from Melbourne, loaded with considerable gold ingots, as well as numerous ‘lucky’ passengers whose belts and pockets were loaded down with gold nuggets from mining in the gold fields, dropped off a few passengers in Ireland and telexed ahead that they would arrive in Liverpool the following day. As they rounded Anglesey the tail wind swung round to a full hurricane force head-on gale from the north-west, allegedly the storm of the century blowing up to 100 mph. The 200 horse power steam engine was no match for this, the mast and sails were cut down and the anchors dragged until their chains snapped. The powerless ship was driven onto the rocks off Moelfre, wrecked only 25 yards from shore. A courageous Maltese sailor made it ashore with a rope and a bosoms chair line was erected to bring passengers off, but at this point the ship broke in two and hapless passengers were thrown onto the rocks. Not a single woman or child survived and many miners were dragged under by the weight of their gold. It became known as the ‘golden wreck’ and a treasure hunters dream. The great storm of 1859 became known as the Royal Charter Storm, with 133 ships sunk off the British coast!

I was recently invited to speak about the Gibbs family connection to the ship at the 165th Anniversary Conference of the ‘Royal Charter’ Tragedy, organised by the Anglesey Marine Archeology and Shipwreck Club, and a very dynamic Peter who has networked over the years with a whole community of people who have a connection to the disaster. I had attended 5 years ago as my first introduction to this story (previous post) which captivated people at the time, including Charles Dickens who visited and wrote about it. In the village of Moelfre inhabitants cannot forget the disaster, with monuments on the cliffs, at the church and in front of the of the lifeboat station, as well as pictures around the school and in the local pub. Becky Bright also attended and spoke about the Bright family involvement.

George Gibbs Senior was the older brother of Antony Gibbs, each starting separate merchant trading companies, though with considerable collaboration and many exchanges of people between them.

The established partnership of George Gibbs & Son was joined by family friend Robert Bright in 1818, shortly before George Snr died, the firm becoming Gibbs Bright & Co. of Bristol in 1824, as it was at the time of the Royal Charter tragedy, though by then much of their business had moved north to Liverpool. While I represented the Gibbs side of the partnership, and Becky the Brights, as an indication of the close relationship between the families in both business and marriages, I am actually more closely related to Robert Bright than I am to Antony Gibbs!

The conference brought together an eclectic mix of attendees and speakers, starting on the previous night with Peter giving a eulogy performance of the harrowing sermon from the local vicar who had buried, tried to identify, and exchanged letters with family of so many of the victims, many unrecognisable from such smashing against the rocks. In addition to Peter, Becky and I speakers included:

• Welsh wreck diving enthusiast Chris who first dived on the Royal Charter in 1982 and has been fascinated by the story ever since. He published ‘Life and Death on the Royal Charter’ with many extracts from newspaper records of the time.
• Josh from Pennsylvania tracing his partner’s Irish roots and a’missing’ great-grandfather, discovered a sealed letter from the wife recounting their story. The young couple had left Ireland during the potato famine for Pennsylvania where he worked as a coal miner and built a small house. Hearing of the gold rush he travelled to Australia and was on his way back when he lost his life on the rocks of Moelfre.
• Charles, an Australian farmer inherited a chest from his parents containing a letter which he read out written by his ancestor who was one of the few survivors, describing the wreck. His young wife had died in Australia and he was travelling back with his baby daughter and her nurse, both whom perished.
• Raymond from Malta whose ancestor was the Maltese sailor that managed to swim ashore with the rope, in memory of whose heroic efforts there is a bronze statue by the lifeboat. He carried on working on Gibbs Bright ships for another 20 years.
• Linda whose Great Great Grandfather William Patterson designed and built the ship
• Debbie about her family member James Dean from Wigan returning to his wife and child, but saw how the weight was dragging people under and shed his clothes and gold, and was hauled ashore by the men of Moelfre.

This wreck really was the Titanic of its day, happening in broad daylight only 25 yards from shore with local men on the cliffs desperate to rescue people from one of the finest great ships lashed by a force 12 gale. A truly human horror story.

These iron hybrid sail and steam ships lasted only a brief window before more powerful engines replaced them and today’s cargo and cruise ships spew out vast quantities of emissions. But might climate change concerns see the return of these hybrid power and wind ships? Have a look a this video for a vision of the future https://youtu.be/xsFc3pro8Y8?si=1A2WEIUZwOe7_Cqh