Our first Celtic longboat is named in honour of one of the heroes of the tragic wrecking of the steam clipper, the Royal Charter.
Joseph Rodgers (Guzeppi Ruggier) was a Maltese seaman and crewmember of the doomed Royal Charter. When the ship was wrecked off Moelfre in the worst storm in the 19th Century he, in an act of great heroism, was able to reach the shore with a line.
This enabled the setting up of a Breeches Buoy/Bosun's Chair and, with the courageous efforts of the locals who formed a human chain in the waves, led to a number of lives being saved.
Of the 376 people aboard the Royal Charter only 18 passengers, 5 of 11 riggers working their passage, and 18 of the crew were saved before the line parted. Without the bravery of Joseph Rodgers, many more lives would surely have been lost.
The shipwreck also gave Captain Robert Fitzroy, Royal Navy, head of the Meteorological Office, the impetus to develop the first gale warning service.