The Loss of the Ocean Monarch - Introduction

On the 24th August 1848 the barque Ocean Monarch was destroyed by fire in Liverpool Bay. Carrying emigrants from Liverpool to Boston, USA, her regular trade, the ship sank six miles off Great Orme's Head and 178 lives were lost. The barque was owned by the White Diamond Line (E.Train & Co.), and she was registered at Boston, the port where she had been built. This series of newspaper articles describes the loss, the heroism and also the criminality of some of the rescuers, and gives the accounts both of the vessel's master, Captain Murdock, and other witnesses.

The Ocean Monarch was a 1301 ton barque built at the East Boston shipyard of Donald McKay in July 1847, one of nine packet vessels built by McKay for the Boston shipowner Enoch Train. McKay was later to become one of the most famous of American builders of sailing ships, his reputation arising from a series of fast clippers built in the years from 1850 that included such illustrious vessels as Lightning, Champion of the Seas, Great Republic and Sovereign of the Seas. Whilst the Ocean Monarch was not a true clipper, she was a large vessel and a fast sailer in Atlantic conditions.

Several other of McKay's clippers were lost by fire, including the Lightning, at Geelong, Australia in 1869, and the James Baines, of the Black Ball Line, at Liverpool's Huskisson Dock in 1858.

Sources:

1. Newspaper articles were transcribed by Tony Dalton, maritime writer.
2. "Clipper Ships" by David R.MacGregor (Argus Books, 1979) ISBN 0 85242 618 6.
3. "Shipwreck Index of the British Isles" Vol. 5 by Richard & Bridget Larn, pub. Lloyds Register, 2000, ISBN 1 900839 61 X - gives incorrect date of build as 1843.
4. The Era of the Clipper Ships - incorrectly implies that the vessel was sailing from Boston to Liverpool.