The author is establishing herself as a specialist in the subject of maritime disasters. This is another memorial account that captures the terrors of maritime disaster, bringing the dead back to life. – Most Highly Recommended.
NAME: The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch, Fire, Family, & Fidelity FILE: R2713 AUTHOR: Gill Hoffs PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: hard back PAGES: 241 PRICE: £16.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Immigrant crossings, trans-Atlantic, Liverpool, Boston MA, sailing ships, fire, sinkings, survival, courage cowardice, wooden ships, Victorian Era
ISBN: 1-52673-439-7
IMAGE: B2713.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyur.com/ycu2klk2 LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The author is establishing herself as a specialist in the subject of maritime disasters. This is another memorial account that captures the terrors of maritime disaster, bringing the dead back to life. – Most Highly Recommended. The author wrote a most memorable account of the “Sinking of RMS Tayleur” and then followed it with the equally memorable account “The Lost Story of the William & Mary”. This new book repeats a very successful formula and provides a compelling account of the dangers of sea travel in the Victorian Age. The foundations of the British Empire may have been laid in the Golden Age of Elizabeth I, but the race for Empire really began in the aftermath of the Battle of Trafalgar. From 1805 the Royal Navy was undisputed master of the seas. Not all expeditions were successful, with the success of the taking Cape Colony being followed by the abortive attempt to aid Argentine rebels in their struggle for independence. In fairness to Admiral Popham, he took an inspired decision to sail from Cape Town to Buenos Aires and expected the politicians to back his initial success with reinforcements. After his consolidation of his taking of the Cape, he could have enjoyed a second success and speeded the breakup of the Spanish Empire. What was demanded to exploit the opportunities of the first truly global empire was a large fleet of merchant vessels. Britain rapidly built a huge fleet that was initially sail powered, but it still left space for other nations to provide merchant transport. As steam started to make its mark, the sailing vessel was not immediately replaced. Sail was still numerically dominant into the late Victorian period and the last commercial sailing vessels were not retired until the 1960s. The final vessels tended to be the economic sailing barges, crewed typically by a man and a boy, providing a coastal shipping service, carrying cargoes like Scotch from Scottish distilleries down the East Coast to London. Ironically, fire was a greater threat on sailing ships than on steam- powered vessels, even though the steam required a very large fire in the boiler room. In this absorbing tale, Gill Hoffs tells the story of a fairly typical merchant ship on the sailing from Liverpool to Boston MA in the mid-Nineteenth Century. The combination of tarred rope and wood of the sailing ship was a major threat in the event of fire. Even a small fire could very rapidly develop beyond any hope of extinguishing it. The Ocean Monarch carried a typical selection of trans-Atlantic passengers. Of the 400 aboard, this was an emigrant ship taking Europeans to the USA for a new life. Many would be poor, and the crew to passenger ratio low. The 170th anniversary of the disaster is an appropriate time to bring back to life the people and the ship. This is a story of courage and cowardice. Some ships rushed to the rescue, but others turned away. People on the Welsh Coast watched helplessly in horrified fascination. This is the full story and it holds the readers attention. There is also a very interesting photo-plate section of B&W images that nicely complements the text.