Superb Pair 19th C Hand Coloured Print - Ship Wreck Royal Charter

A really wonderful and scarce pair of mid-19th century hand coloured prints The Foundering of the Royal Charter.
This print is an engravings that has been beautifully hand coloured with water colours. It tells the story of HMS Royal Charter foundering off the coast of Anglesey.
The Royal Charter was a steam clipper which was wrecked off the beach of Porth Alerth in Dulas Bay on the northeast coast of Anglesey on 26 October 1859. The ship was used on the route from Liverpool to Australia, mainly as a passenger ship although there was room for some cargo. There was room for up to 600 passengers, with luxury accommodation in the first class. She was considered a very fast ship, able to make the passage to Australia via Cape Horn in under 60 days.
The ship initially grounded on a sandbank, but in the early morning of the 26th the rising tide drove her on to the rocks at a point just north of Moelfre at Porth Alerth on the north coast of Anglesey. Battered against the rocks by huge waves whipped up by winds of over 100 mph, she quickly broke up.
One member of the crew, Maltese-born Guzi Ruggier also known as Joseph Rogers managed to swim ashore with a line, enabling a few people to be rescued, and a few others were able to struggle to shore through the surf. Most of the passengers and crew, a total of over 450 people, died. Many of them were killed by being dashed against the rocks by the waves rather than drowned. Others were said to have drowned, weighed down by the belts of gold they were wearing around their bodies. The survivors, 21 passengers and 18 crew members, were all men, with no women or children saved.
It comes in very good condition and has been reframed and glazed at some point quite recently. It has a good quality gilt frame and it has been well mounted, which includes double ink lining.
It measures 21 x 18 inches.

Code: 26929