Gill Hoffs – författare

'The moment they fell into the water the waves caught them and dashed them violently against the rocks, and the survivors on shore could perceive the unfortunate creatures...struggling amidst the waves, and one by one sinking under them.' (Hereford Times, 28 January 1854) 

The wrecking of the RMS Tayleur made headlines nearly 60 years before the Titanic. Both were run by the White Star Line, both were heralded as the most splendid ships of their time – and both sank in tragic circumstances on their maiden voyages. 

On 19 January 1854 the Tayleur, a large merchant vessel, left Liverpool for Australia; packed with hopeful emigrants, her hold stuffed with cargo. On the 160th anniversary of the disaster, Gill Hoffs reveals new theories behind the disaster and tells the stories of the passengers and crew on the ill-fated vessel: 

Captain John Noble, record breaking hero of the Gold Rush era. 

Ship surgeon Robert Hannay Cunningham and his young family, on their way to a new life among the prospectors of Tent City. 

Samuel Carby, ex-convict, returning to the gold fields with his new wife – and a fortune sewn into her corsets. 

But the ship's revolutionary iron hull prevented its compasses from working. Lost in the Irish Sea, a storm swept the Tayleur and the 650 people aboard towards a cliff, studded with rocks 'black as death'. What happened next shocked the world.

As featured in the Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post, Manchester Evening News, Hereford Times, Liverpool Echo, The Press & Journal, Dundee Courier, Fife Herald, Discover Your History, Your Family Tree, the Warrington Guardian and on BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Merseyside, RTE Radio, Radio Warrington, Kingdom FM.

The emigrant ship William and Mary departed from Liverpool with 208 British, Irish, and Dutch emigrants in early 1853. Captained by young American Timothy Stinson, the vessel was sailing for New Orleans when the ship wrecked in the Bahamas in mysterious circumstances. Stinson and the majority of his crew sneaked away in lifeboats – murdering two of the emigrants with a hatchet as they did so – and reported the ship sunk with all on board lost. But the passengers kept the ship afloat and two days later were rescued by heroic wreckers as the ship went down. Now, over 160 years on, the tale of the two murdered in Bahamian waters and the hundreds who escaped thanks to kindly wreckers can finally be told. Stinson is no longer getting away with murder.