Sailing on the Royal Charter fulfilled all the aspirations of the Victorian age but her destruction on the Anglesey coast in 1859 during the worst storm of the century was a reality check for travellers and ship owners. This documentary traces the Royal Charter’s keel laying on the banks of the river Dee and visits the S.S. Great Britain, also built by William Patterson, for comparison. Details of her final fateful voyage from Melbourne to Liverpool are discussed by historians and the aftermath of the wrecking is portrayed through the eyewitness account of Charles Dickens. Marine artists Ted Walker and Brian Entwistle discuss their paintings of the Royal Charter’s final hours and illustrator Keith Shone depicts the death throes of the great ship on  Moelfre rocks.

Presented and narrated by Welsh actor Cadfan Roberts, this is the definitive documentary about the Royal Charter, her cargo of gold and human tragedy.