TITANIC . . . Lusitania . . . a tale of two ships Merseysiders know well.

'Lancastria'was an even greater disaster: the ex-Cunard troop ship sank in WWII, claiming the lives of more than 4,000 souls.

How many readers, though, know the story of the 'Royal Charter', which sank en route to Liverpool, a century before?

With the Titanic film now showing and the memory and damage of hurricane winds still with us, Ernie Ruffler from Wirral Museums charts the story of the 'Golden Wreck'.

Imagine the scene: the Bay of Liverpool on an October night in 1859 with winds in excess of Force 11, beyond the Beaufort Scale.

The luxury steam clipper 'Royal Charter', built on Deeside, was a fast runner between Australia and Liverpool. The Gold Rush was on then and 200,000 people sailed Down Under to seek their fortunes - many from Merseyside and Wales.

'Royal Charter' was designed for those who wanted to get to Australia and back quickly! She broke records and could do the Australian run in under 60 days. But even in the best of weather conditions, it was a terrible voyage. Up to 100 people could die doing the trip.

Returning to Liverpool, the 'Royal Charter' had hundreds of 'lucky' passengers and a reputed £322,000 fortune aboard.

'Royal Charter' had sails plus steam and, after just eight weeks, reached Anglesey. Captain Thomas Taylor had good reason to think that another record-breaking voyage to Liverpool was about to be completed . . . but then the storm struck!

The weather worsened, but Captain Taylor decided to try for Liverpool, some 70 miles away. It was a fatal error: the ship got into difficulties and no-one who saw her distress signals could help because the storm was so bad.

'Royal Charter' grounded on a sandbank, just 25 yards from shore. People gathered on the cliff at Moelfre, but it took time to get a rescue line to the stricken vessel, which broke up on the rocks.

One crew member, Isaac Lewis, was from Moelfre. His dad stood on the cliffs during the tragedy - they would never see one another again.

At least 500 people, including the captain, perished on board 'Royal Charter' - one of the worst disasters of the century. A monument was placed with a memorial stone in Llanallgo churchyard.

Dickens reported the story of the tragic ship, which was to become know as the 'Golden Wreck', due to the vast amount of gold aboard.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.