A LATCHFORD author will be appearing on BBC2 on Thursday to tell the story of 'Warrington’s own Titanic'.

Gill Hoffs will be featured on Coast at 8pm when she discusses the fate of the RMS Tayleur.

More than 360 people died when the Warrington-built iron clipper sank on its maiden voyage, off the coast of Ireland in 1854.

The ship, packed with emigrants to Australia, was operated by Liverpool’s White Star line – just like the ill-fated Titanic.

Gill wrote a book about the tragedy called The Sinking Of RMS Tayleur after stumbling across the story while researching in Warrington Library.

It has been a whirlwind new career for the 36-year-old who studied psychology and worked in children’s homes before the birth of her son Angus led to a change of direction.

She said: "I developed a passion for the subject the more I found out about it. I didn’t study history at school. I just got caught up in the whole story.

"The story seems to have made a lot of people cry – which I admit I was aiming for – but it is a tragedy after all. Within that though there are heroic tales, happy stories and true romance too.

"It has been great because on the back of the book many people have got in touch with me, who are descendants of those involved, and I found many others who were connected, but never even knew.

"Most people don’t even know there was such a proud ship-building history here creating these luxury liners.

"I was worried that people might be horrified by the tragedy of the story but mostly they’ve been really proud to discover that Warrington had this proud and thriving industry building these vast ships."

The team behind BBC Two's Coast sent divers down to explore the wreck, now a protected site off Lambay Island, Dublin Bay, and also visited Warrington, where they unearthed early drawings of the doomed vessel.

Named after Charles Tayleur, founder of Vulcan Engineering Works, Bank Quay, the 230ft long RMS Tayleur was launched on the River Mersey in Warrington in 1853.

But after leaving Liverpool in January 1854 for Melbourne with 650 people on board, disaster struck when it ran aground after travelling west to Ireland, rather than south through the Irish Sea. After many investigations the blame was put on the compasses, sent awry by the vessel’s iron hull, and the lack of trained, English-speaking crew.

Gill believes a cover-up took place, with the captain initially held to account, before the owners were finally found negligent.

The liner has lain at the bottom of the Irish Sea ever since, where it can be visited by divers, and only now is its little-known story coming to light.

Gill, who grew up in Scotland before moving to Warrington added: "I’m still really keen to hear from people who know anything about the RMS Tayleur too so if anyone has any anecdotes or pictures or anything I would love them to get in touch.

"While we were filming Coast we found a beautiful lithograph picture of it at Warrington Museum, which has now been used on the paperback.

"It sank within two days of its departure so there weren’t many pictures of it so it was amazing to see."

Gill will also be at Waterstones in Golden Square on Saturday at 3pm with relics from the wrecked RMS Tayleur including crockery and a medicine bottle from the ship surgeon's medicine chest.

Matt Harrop, manager of Waterstones in Golden Square, said: "I find Gill’s story fascinating and I know a lot of our customers have a keen interest in local history, as that section of our store is always popular.

"As the story is being featured on BBC Coast, we thought that people would like to know more about what happened with RMS Tayleur, so we have invited Gill here to talk about her researches.”

As well as promoting the paperback version of her first book, Gill has written another called Wild: A Collection and has started work on her next ship-based true-life thriller The Cowardice Of Captain Stinson.

  • Anyone with information or pictures for Gill should contact her on gillhoffs@hotmail.co.uk or catch up with her at Waterstones