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Archiver > GALLANTRY-AWARDS > 2006-08 > 1154703934


From: "Bernard de Neumann" <>
Subject: RE: [GAL] Silver medal awarded to George Suaicar, 1860
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 16:05:34 +0100
In-Reply-To: <000701c6b7d0$c8316a00$93058f56@b9k86hu47j5sxq>


Further to my previous posting here is some more material on the ROYAL
CHARTER, her wreck and the rescue.

Gold was first discovered in Australia in 1823 around Bathhurst, New South
Wales, but it was not until the late 1840s the size of the deposit was fully
realised. By 1851 the tempo of the gold rush had built up to uncontrollable
proportions in NSW and it finally spread, with the encouragement of the
government to the rest of Australia. Probably the biggest sites were at
Ballarat and Bendigo close to Melbourne, but other gold fields flourished
across the new continent. Disposing of the 'panned' gold by individual
miners was a major problem and many sold their gold on site although a
government escort travelled to Melbourne once a week where the gold was sold
on behalf of the miners to jewellers and gold buyers By the mid 1850s there
was little law and order in the camps and the government had to introduce a
licensing system to protect individuals rights. It also gave those miners a
parliamentary vote, which simplified the problem of tracking down any named
miner and placing on record names of immigrants and emigrants. The late
1850s saw the end of the surface prospecting, where the gold was lying
around just for the picking and many miners' started to leave for their
homelands taking with them their hard earned 'pickings'.

FABULOUS CARGO

One of these tough pioneers was a young man called John Bradbury whose
home-town was Manchester. At the age of 2 John had amassed a vast fortune in
gold and had decided that he had had enough of digging. Before he left for
his native England he had his gold made into coins and placed inside
specially made little boxes, for each of his family. Then he booked
second-class passage for home on the fast steam clipper, ROYAL CHARTER, a
2719-ton iron- clad ship, furnished with powerful auxiliary engines of 200
hp and renowned for its speed and safety. The vessel was crammed with miners
and she was loaded with a fabulous cargo of gold bullion and coin belonging
to the passengers returning to Liverpool wit their fortunes. On the 24th and
25th August 1859 a small steamer lay along side the ROYAL CHARTER from which
square wooded boxes were handed up to the clippers deck. Each box was marked
with its weight, name of the shipper and the bank to which it was consigned.
Then the captain and Australian customs officer personally checked each box,
before being stacked away below in the strong-room deep inside the hull at
the stern. At the time gold was valued at £4 an ounce. A total value of the
cargo being £322,440, but the real total could have doubled this because a
great many of the 390 plus passengers were carrying their own fortunes on
them.

John Bradbury had watched his own boxes being stowed safely away before
retiring to the reasonably comfortable accommodation he was to share with
another young miner called Bakewell. On 26th August 1859 the ROYAL CHARTER
steamed out of Hobson's Bay, Victoria with her full compliment of officers
and crew under the command of Captain Taylor who had gained for her (quote)
'a golden opinion' by his rapid successful voyage from Liverpool to
Melbourne in 59-days. The journey was uneventful except for one incident off
Cape Horn when an iceberg was reported to have 'approached' the ship rather
too close for comfort, but the passengers were not made aware of it until
the danger was long passed. The passengers placed so much trust and
appreciation in the captain that when the ship anchored up 20 miles off Cove
of Cork, they presented him with a testimonial. It was also from here that
the excited and elated passengers dispatched their letters and telegrams via
a pilot boat to the waiting relatives back home. Unfortunately the pilot
boat did not reach Queenstown in Ireland until the following day the 25th.
Not a breath of wind disturbed the water as the ROYAL CHARTER steamed around
the Irish Coast., At Queenstown thirteen passenger went ashore and escaped
the fate which forty eight hours later befell so many of their fellow
voyagers but unfortunately a steam tug captain transferred eleven riggers
onto the ROYAL CHARTER off Bards and they were given a free trip to
Liverpool.

EGYPTIAN DARKNESS

As the ship passed Holyhead and night came on, an 'Egyptian darkness'
reigned. The wind, which had been freshening ii the earlier pan of the day
now burst with uncontrollable fury over the ship. Off the Skerries the
Captain signalled for a pilot, then again off Point Lymas, but was forced to
proceed without one, for no pilot boat dared to venture out amid the huge
breakers and darkness of that terrible night. Eleven o'clock and the ship
was becoming unmanageable, but still John Bradbury and most of the
passengers kept faith in the professionalism of their captain. By this time
the waves were building up to 50 and 60 feet high in the face of a
full-blown hurricane with winds over one hundred miles an hour. The whips
powerful engines were helpless and she slewed across sideways towards the
shore. Orders were given to let go the port anchor with 100-fathoms
(600-feet) of chain, then the starboard anchor with 70-fathoms of chain.
These succeeded in checking the vessel until 1.30am but then the port chain
parted and orders were given to get up the steam anchor. TI strain from the
raging wind and waves were too much as the starboard cable parted and the
ship slewed around broadside and grounded. The big two-blade screw, which
had been driving steadily to help the anchors hold, dug deep into the sand
and stopped. Officers and crew fought desperately against the elements,
impervious to their own danger, using every means, which the skill of their
captain could devise to save the ship and those aboard her. The four feet
thick masts were cut down and immediately swept away, but the falling debris
killed many of those on deck. Passengers were ordered below, but it was too
late by this time, as panic had broken out. People were swept off the decks
into the raging water. Distress guns were fired and blue lights went up, but
the roar of the storm deadened the signals. Terrified men, women and
children clung to each other in prayer as the vessel was battered by the
sea, then a tremendous wave came down onto her, which rushed into the cabins
and through the skylights, broken by falling rigging. John Bradbury
struggled up from his cabin pushing past the screaming, panicking people and
made his way up to the saloon. He knew that all seemed lost. No longer could
be believe the commanding voice of Captain Taylor and Captain Withers as
they tried to assure the passengers that when day break came they would all
get ashore safely. The ship bumped and heaved with each wave and those few
hours of darkness seemed like all the years of John Bradbury's life.

ROPE ASHORE

When dawn broke a Maltese sailor, George Suaicar lowered himself into the
water with a rope and tried to reach the shore, but time after time he was
swept back, until he was finally hauled out exhausted. Then another Maltese
crewman called Joe Thomas attempted the swim through the treacherous short
stretch of water and after what seemed like an eternity, managed to secure a
hawser around the only rock able to take the strain. Along this sixteen of
the crew were able to make their escape with the help of the hundreds of
local people who now lined the shore. (Joe Thomas later presented with a
gold medal and £5 by the National Lifeboat Institute and George Suaicar with
a silver medal at the Liverpool Sailors home). Soon after the rescue
occurred, a huge wave forced the ship violently onto the rocks and another
crashed down on top of the ship smashing through the full length of the
hull. The destructive force broke the vessel in two and they slewed round
becoming a total wreck. About half of those on board perished by being
crushed or swept out into the raging sea. John Bradbury was pushed against
the saloon walls and had great difficulty clawing his way onto the remains
of what used to be the deck. He lowered himself down into the water amongst
the bodies and debris and was just starting to swim for shore when a
lifeboat fell from the vessel, crushing him beneath it. Seething pain shot
through his chest and back as he was forced below the freezing water. He
could not feel his leg and as he gasped for air he thought the end had
finally come. With senses numbed and barely conscious of his movements he
washed back and forth in the huge rollers, which pounced onto the rocks and
nearby beach. The surf was so fierce that it had hurled 14-ton rocks onto
the sand. John was dragged room the sea half dead and unconscious, his
clothes ripped to shreds but extremely lucky to be alive at all. Four burly
fishermen from the village carried him up to a cabin belonging to a Mr
Tyndall Bright, where remained until he recovered in December of that year.
John was unaware at the time of his escape but was later informed that he
was the last person to reach shore alive and he was presented with a
candlestick from the wreck by one of the salvage divers as a token of
esteem. Although now penniless, he was luckier than most of the prospectors
and miners on board in that his gold was stowed away in the ships hold. Many
of those had died because of the weight they carried in money belts around
their bodies, which dragged them down in the seas. The sea was a seething
mass of bodies for days after the wrecking and some were discovered months
later around the coast of Moelfra 480 people had perished in that terrible
hurricane of 1859 on one ship alone and little mention was made about the
dozens of other vessels which met a similar fate on that same day.

OFFICIAL ENQUIRY

At the official inquiry held in Liverpool, the captain, who went down with
his ship, was exonerated of any blame, but he was criticised by others for
not turning back for shelter at Holyhead and thus causing the death of all
those souls on board. The famous Charles Dickens visited the scene of the
disaster and wrote of the heroism and kindness shown by many of the local
people, although there was also a great deal of pilfering and plunder. While
the heart breaking search for relatives and the bodies of loved ones went
on, hard-hatted divers were already down on the ship searching the wreck for
the fortune in gold. During that operation they successfully recovered half
a million pounds sterling in gold, which the underwriters took possession of
having paid out the insurance. Divers also recovered hundreds of other
objects as well E the gold and jewellery, but a great deal must still lie
there in the sand and debris. John Bradbury returned home and joined the
family Wine and Spirit business in Altringham. He later married and had two
children before he died in 1904 E the age of 68 years. In the period between
the wrecking of the ROYAL CHARTER and the date of his death John Bradbury
was instrumental in saving a dozen people from drowning and was awarded the
Bronze Medal for his bravery. The terrible tragedy and loss of life on the
ROYAL CHARTER would have by now faded into history, like the Rothsay Castle,
which was wrecked on Puffin Island in 1832 with the loss of 126 lives and
within sight of the cliffs of Moelfra, had it not been for the lure of the
rich cargo of gold she carried. Had it not been for that fateful day in
1859, many people like the Great Grandson of John Bradbury would probably
have been fabulously wealthy today.

Bernard de Neumann



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