A golden ship and a golden man

 

The great storm of 1859 claimed over 800 lives and 223 ships. This is the story of one of them. The Royal Charter was a fast steam clipper ship on the Australian run. On her maiden outward journey she had done a fast time to Port Phillip Bay and she was therefore full of passengers for the return. Many were miners returning from the goldfields, loaded with their savings. She also carried specie from the Sydney Mint, sovereigns and gold bars. On the night of October 25th she ran aground on the rocks at Moelfre and over 400 people were lost. A few survived, plucked onto shore by 28 men of Moelfre. Gold was scattered along the shore like seashells. It was thought that many more could have survived but they wouldn't let go of their gold! Charles Dickens visited the scene in his capacity as a newspaper reporter and he later wrote a short story about the tragedy called 'The Uncommercial Traveller' He also helped to raise a subscription for a memorial that can be seen in the churchyard at Llanallgo. It is said that a fortune of gold still lies in the wreckage but most of it has probably been recovered already, as the wreck is in shallow water. The odd sovereign still gets found though, especially after severe storms.
One hundred years and one day later another ship hit the same rocks. This was the 500-ton coaster Hindlea, the bottom plates of which can still be seen at low tides just along the cliff path from the village. It was for rescuing the crew of this ship that Richard Evans, Cox of the Moelfre Lifeboat, won his first Gold Medal. He was later to gain another for his helping to rescue the crew of the Nafsiporus, a Greek freighter, along with the Holyhead Lifeboat. He appeared on Eamonn Andrew's 'This is your Life' in the 1960's when the show was broadcast live from both the studio and Moelfre Lifeboat Station. He was a man who spent most of his life in the voluntary service of the RNLI and thoroughly deserved his two gold medals. He died, in his 90's, in 2001.