On
this Day 24th August 1848 a terrible shipwreck occurred a few miles
to the north of Llandudno. A fifteen hundred ton sailing ship, the Ocean
Monarch caught fire. On board were over three hundred and fifty passengers and
a crew of forty. The passengers were British migrants on their way to start a
new life in America. Many theories have been suggested for the cause of the
fire such as passengers lighting a fire in one of the ship’s ventilators, or a
crew member had been careless when lighting a candle near some loose straw. Whatever
the cause in a very short time a large part of the ship was ablaze.
Local Impact
Flames
from the vessel were visible for many miles from land and sea. And the tragedy
had a huge impact on the inhabitants of Llandudno. In his 1893 publication, ‘Adgofion
am Llandudno’, ‘Recollections of Llandudno’, by Thomas Rowlands, translated by Local
Historian, Tom Parry, Rowlands recalls,
“I will mention only one
incident which cast sadness and sorrow over our lives. One afternoon news
reached the village that a large ship was on fire outside Llandudno Bay.
Everyone abandoned their pleasures and their duties and raced to the Fach (the
Happy Valley), on arrival we saw, about fifteen miles out to sea, the large
emigrant ship, The Ocean Monarch, with flames running up the rigging and the
masts. There were hundreds of emigrants on board when the fire broke out. They
had just left the port of Liverpool and were full of high hopes of reaching
America, and thought, as they left the old country, that they were bidding
goodbye to oppression. But no, within a few hours the two most destructive
elements had turned against then, the fire and the water and threatened not
only their comforts but their very lives.”
Assisting the Stricken
Vessel
In
a very short time ships came from all directions in order to try and assist the
stricken vessel. First on the scene was the luxury yacht, Queen of the Ocean,
homeward bound from Beaumaris Regatta to Liverpool. It was followed by the
Brazilian steam frigate Alfonso, the paddle steamer Prince of Wales en route
from Dublin, the American ship, New World bound for New York and several
others. Anchors were dropped to keep the Ocean Monarch’s bow to the wind in
order to confine the fire to the vessel’s stern whilst evacuating the
passengers to the rescue vessels. The Alfonso succeeded in rescuing 156, but by
the end of the day 178 lives had been lost. After burning for twenty hours the
ship sank. This was one of the worst accidents to befall migrants from Britain
to America during the nineteenth century. The ship’s figurehead was washed
ashore at Rhos on Sea and adorned the wall of the Mountain View Hotel in
Mochdre for many years. The wreckage of the Ocean Monarch is one of the
hundreds of wrecks littering the sea bed in Liverpool Bay.
Pottery from the Wreck Site of the Ocean Monarch
