Читать книгу From Triumph to Tragedy - Jane Bowen - Страница 6

Preface

My interest in the Pegasus began when I found, in the Northumberland Archives, a collection of proofs of ‘Reward’ notices, looking for information about passengers lost following the sinking of the Pegasus in July 1843. The number of different notices suggested a serious disaster, but I had never heard of it. I was curious.

A Google search produced accounts of the disaster, in its day the worst merchant marine disaster in British waters. In the search, I also found that the company records were held in the Glasgow University Archives. From the information there, and in the British Newspaper Archives, a much fuller picture of the ship and its activities began to emerge.

Built in 1835, specifically for the Leith/Hull route, at the time the Pegasus was at the cutting edge of ship design – and a forerunner of John Masefield’s ‘Dirty British coaster’. In the years that followed, the weekly passenger and goods service she provided was a key link in the industrialisation of Scotland before railway communication was fully established. In each country, she created markets for goods produced by other countries. At a time when political revolutions were still current in Europe, the service contributed to the security of the United Kingdom as a whole, allowing troops to be moved efficiently to garrisons across the country. The Pegasus also had a hand in the entertainments industry of the day. Racehorses, theatre companies and menageries all sailed on her, making travelling shows accessible to a much wider audience.

Her unexpected wreck, on a clear summer’s night in 1843, shocked the nation, and left grieving families across Britain, from Inverness to London, and Wales to Lincolnshire. Even then, she was at the forefront of salvage activity, with some of the first deep sea helmeted divers working on her to retrieve bodies and goods. From the disaster, and the enquiries which followed, came the beginnings of better shipping regulation.

This is the story I have tried to tell – I hope you will find it as fascinating as I have.