Review of The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch

The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch by Gill Hoffs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Water and fire. Two elements – one of which will extinguish the other – except when the fire is aboard a wooden ship and the water is all around her. Then you are faced with little hope for escape and must decide whether to drown or burn to death.

This was the tragedy nearly 400 men, women, and children – seventy of whom were under the age of 14 – faced the day they set sail from Liverpool, England that fateful day in August 1848. Within a few hours, their ship sank off the coast of Llandudno, Wales.

The Ocean Monarch was bound for Boston and built by Donald McKay just the year before. She had three decks and was considered far safer than the coffin ships that carried many immigrants. Life boats weren’t required, although a couple were carried. What firefighting equipment she had consisted of a dozen buckets and a water pump that wasn’t up to snuff. By the time the fire was discovered, there was little anyone could do and nowhere for most people to go until other ships arrived to help.

Those who boarded the Ocean Monarch came from a variety of backgrounds. Some were Irish emigrants seeking a new homeland. Others were tourists returning from their travels. A handful possessed money and stature. The majority worked for a living or were penniless. Nearly half of them would not survive. A number of the passengers are introduced by name and followed as events unfold, such as the Dows, who were newly married; Nathaniel Southworth, a well-known miniaturist; James Fellows, a watchmaker and jeweler; and Thomas Henry, who expressly waited to sail on this ship because he knew her captain. There was also a man who abandoned his wife to run off with another man’s wife. Others are mentioned for something they did, such as a stewardess, whose name is unknown, who sacrificed her life to prevent gunpowder from exploding which would have made the tragedy even worse.

But this is more than just the story of those aboard the burning ship. It is also about her rescuers, including members of the Brazilian navy, exiled French royalty, and a man who had rescued people from another shipwreck. One of the captains had even served under Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. Then there are the pilots and a rumor of a possible murder.

In twelve chapters, Hoffs explores events and people before, during, and after the fire. She includes some black-and-white photographs, an epilogue, and personal note, as well as appendices that provide a chronology of the corpses and details about them, locations of grave sites and inquests, and a list of medals. In addition, there is a list of names of passengers, stewards, stewardesses, the captain and crew, and some who were aboard other vessels and came to the doomed ship’s aid. A select bibliography and index complete the text. Interspersed throughout the narrative are firsthand accounts and newspaper reports of what happened that day and in the days that followed.

What becomes clear in reading this story is that this travesty need not have been as horrific as it ended up being and that despite the passing of more than a century and a half, there still is no concrete proof as to how the fire started. In explaining how she came to write this story, Hoffs also demonstrates the role social behavior played in the events. She deftly shows the chaos and confusion that resulted from the fire, and her words paint a gruesome image of what the victims endured. (She does include a warning note of what pages to skip for readers who might be squeamish.) Rather than focus on just the microcosm of the ship, she elaborates on what was happening in the world at the time. Yet she also leaves readers with many questions that were never clearly answered by the inquests or investigators. By the end of the book, she does share that her research enabled her to identify six nameless victims and what happened to known survivors.

Perhaps not as gripping a tale as Hoffs’ earlier book, The Lost Story of the William & Mary, nor as clear-cut as to why the Ocean Monarch is a “lost” tale, The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch is still an important contribution to collections focusing on shipwrecks and emigrant stories.




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