The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch
The Ocean Monarch was a large, well-found American emigrant ship which had carried hundreds of migrants from Liverpool to Boston. She sank on 24 August 1848 off the coast of North Wales, only five hours out from Liverpool. She did not hit anything, and the sea was no more than choppy. She caught fire and sank so quickly that over half the 400 passengers were lost, even though she went down in a busy shipping lane.
I am not sure why the book is titled ‘The Lost Story’ since there were hundreds of witnesses, ashore and afloat, and the catastrophe was widely reported. This gives Hoffs plenty of material to give us a detailed account not only of the fire and the rescue but also many personal stories of the large and diverse group of British and Irish passengers. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but it is a reminder of the fire risks run by candle-lit wooden ships in the days before modern fire safety systems.
