It’s generally accepted nowthat corsetry and the pursuitof a wasp-waisted hourglasssilhouette had serious impacts

on the internal organs and generalhealth of many Victorian women,and the vast bell-shaped crinolineswere acknowledged as a hazard nearopen fires, cigars, and machineryeven then. What I hadn’t realizedwas how lethal this fashion provedat sea. When researching the historyof a forgotten shipwreck for mybook, The Sinking of RMS Tayleur: theLost Story of the Victorian Titanic, Ilearned about British fashion in themid-1850s and how the trend fortiny waists proved fatal for morethan a hundred women in oneshipwreck alone.

Mid-Victorian women wore up to16 layers of clothing, includingbloomers, stockings, garters, chemise

(undershirt), corset, corset cover(like a fitted shirt), the hooped framefor a crinoline skirt, petticoats(several would be worn to keepwarm in cooler weather) and a nearfloor-length skirt, a blouse, high-necked under a long-sleeved bodicewith a long row of tiny buttons to doup (buttonhooks were commonlyused) or hooks and eyes, jacket, anda shawl or mantle (a cape-likegarment worn over the shoulders).Women and girls from the lowerclasses usually wore petticoatsstiffened with quilting, or sewed atube stiffened with horsehair nearthe hem of their skirt in place of anexpensive hooped frame. Thenatural shape of a woman’s bodywas distorted by the whale-bonedrigours of their undergarments andthe voluminous bell-shapedcrinoline skirts popular at the time.

This would have been a heavy outfitwhen dry, let alone soaking wet.

On the moveNowadays, comfort is the key fortravel, and the safety of garments istaken for granted. This was notalways the case, and the rise in thenumber of women who travelled bysea during the mid-1800s, and thesubsequent fatalities, makes this clear.

The potato famine in the HungryForties, combined with the push tocolonize far-flung lands with Britishsubjects and the Gold Rushes inCalifornia and Australia, led to anincrease in sea travel by men andwomen of all ages. Whole familiessailed from crowded livingconditions, poverty and disease tofresh starts and fresh air, wide openspaces and the possibility of a decentwage. Although many travelled

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Gill Hoffs discovers how nineteenth-century women’s fashionscould prove lethal at sea

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safely to their destinations,contemporary papers were filledwith news of ships lost and bodieswashing ashore sometimes up to ayear later. Leaky vessels, badweather and dodgy sailors resultedin the loss of 893 ships and 1,549people in the waters around GreatBritain and Ireland in 1854 alone.

Odds against themWhat struck me most about theTayleur in a time when shipwreckswere common but adequateprovision of lifeboats was not, wasthe demographic of the people whodied. Out of an estimated 650 peopleon board, only 290 survived, despitethe ship wrecking within a fewmetres of an inhabited island inDublin Bay. Of the 70 children andmore than 100 women travelling onthe ship, only three of each survived,compared to 284 men. This worksout at around 59 per cent of the menmaking it to land compared to 4 percent of the children, and less than 3per cent of the women.

Some of this can be attributed tofemale passengers being principal

caregivers for the children on board,soothing them in their berths as theysuffered the intense misery ofseasickness, or falling prey to thesymptoms of nausea, dizziness andvertigo themselves. When the shipwrecked against a cliff it was themiddle of the day, but many of thepassengers and crew were belowdecks, feeling too ill to move.

Dozens of women tried to escapewith their families and friends downthe ropes and wooden spars thatoffered a precarious lifeline to therocks at the base of the cliff loomingover the wreck. The waves washedsome of the travellers from the deck,others from the ropes and rocks‘black as death’ as they screamed forhelp, which never came. A cabinpassenger from London later told theLeeds Times, ‘I saw one fine girl, who,after falling from the rope, managedto get hold of another one, whichwas hanging from the side of theship, and which she held on to formore than a quarter of an hour, thesea every moment dashing heragainst the side of the ship, but itwas impossible for us to lend her any

assistance. Someone got a spar out,by which several got onshore; but itsoon broke, and now might be seenhundreds hanging to the bulwarks[sides] of the ship, each struggling toget onshore. I saw one youngwoman hanging on the middle of therope for some time by her twohands, but those pushing to getonshore soon sent her to her doom.’

Men, women and girls edgedtheir way to the middle of the ropes,their weight pulling the rough hempdown so it sagged dangerously, thespray soaking the females’ skirts andwinter stockings. There they hunguntil those behind pushed them outof the way or their arms weakenedand they fell into water thick withwreckage and bodies. The incomingtide and stormy weather made it allbut impossible for those in the waterto swim the short distance to safety,even if their clothing let them.

Laces and layersI asked Jennifer Garside, of WytePhantom Corsetry and Clothing, howeasy it would have been to strip offall or some of the layers in apanicked crowd while the shiplurched towards the cliffs then sankin approximately 20 minutes. ‘Theissues I see immediately would bethe sheer weight of the garmentsonce they got wet, long skirtstangling round ankles, small fiddlyfastenings and trying to undo themwith cold hands. The corset, althoughit would be less of an issue thandragging yards of long wet skirt,would still restrict both movement

Social HistoryDeadly Dresses!

AN 1851 PARISIAN fashion plate showing flounced bodices and sleeves.

A YOUNG girl with a doll and her mother,all displaying contemporary fashion, 1857.

and breathing to some extent.’Some of the women had their

cash sewn into their undergarments,including one lady who,unbeknownst to her fellowpassengers, had £3,000 secreted inher corsets and stays. This wouldnot have been obvious to anyoneelse, except the maid lacing her intoher underwear. A few extra layers ofpaper and gold would make littledifference to the bulky formal curvevisible to their fellow travellers, butthe extra weight only added to thelethality of the emigrant’s outfits.

The problem of petticoats andcorsets hindering women’s escapefrom sinking ships was not a new one.Another emigrant vessel, the IsabellaWatson, sailed with 33 passengers andcrew and sank near the coast ofMelbourne, Australia, in 1852, twoyears before the Tayleur set out forAustralia. The press reported onewoman having her flannel petticoatscut off by her husband. Other womencopied her and all but seven, whodrowned with three men when thelifeboat overturned, survived.

Fortune in disasterOccasionally, women’s clothing savedtheir lives at sea. The Amazon caughtfire and wrecked off the coast of

France a couple of months after theIsabella Watson slipped beneath thewaves. One brave passenger, MissSmith, grabbed her petticoat as sheescaped her cabin, putting it on overher nightdress before tying one endof a rope to the side of the ship andthe other to her arm, and jumpingoverboard. She dangled high in theair from the side of the Amazon asthe fire raged towards her, thenjumped into a lifeboat as it passedbelow. Despite severe bruising toher chest from her rough landing ona bench in the little boat, Smith tookher turn alongside the men inrowing the lifeboat and tied herpetticoat to an oar hoisted aloft as amakeshift distress signal until aDutch ship rescued them 48 hourslater.

Another example of women’sclothing proving helpful in a disasteris in the wrecking – again, by fire –of the Golden Gate in 1862, 15 milesoff the coast of Spain. Many of thoseaboard escaped the flames only toperish in the sea, but one womanmade it to a lifeboat only to find itleaked. She cut up her dress andstuffed wads of it in the gaps, alongwith a man’s handkerchief, and itwas enough to keep them afloatuntil they were saved.

The Tayleur wrecked too close toland and in too rough a sea for herlifeboats to remain whole in thewater; the passengers let one downanyway and watched it smash topieces, adding to the chaos aroundthem. Of the three women whosurvived, at least two were in theirnightgowns, allowing them agreater range of movement thanthose constricted by a corset andtightly-tailored shoulders, andmeaning they carried less water-weight, too. They lost almosteverything but survived, and forthat they were truly grateful. Evenin a time when shipwrecks were adaily occurrence, the fatalities onRMS Tayleur had set the worldabuzz, with the tragedy makingheadlines around the world. Sadly,it would be several more decadesbefore fashions changed and womenwere free to wear more practicaloutfits. �

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• For a pictorial guide and information onhow women in the late Victorian era gotdressed, visitwww.knowlesville.com/vintage/getting-dressed.html

• To see contemporary images of Victoriandresses online, view the MetropolitanMuseum of Art’s collection athttp://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15324coll12

• For information about Wyte PhantomCorsetry and Clothing, visitwww.rosenkavalier.co.uk/wytephantom/wytephantom4.htm, call0774 686 4354, or emailwyte_phantom@hotmail.com

• The Fashion Museum in Bath has a vastcollection of historic and fashionable dress.Visit www.museumofcostume.co.uk

Social HistoryDeadly Dresses!

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The Sinking of RMS Tayleur:The Lost Story of theVictorian Titanic, by GillHoffs, is published on 30 January. Discover YourHistory readers can order itfor £15.99 (20% off RRP),with FREE UK postage andpacking.

• Call 01226 734222 and quote code 281730or visit www.pen-and-sword.co.uk and enterthe code.

A FEW SHORT years after the sinking of the Tayleur, this cartoon from the 11 July 1857 issue ofHarper’s Weekly (New York) shows two young women, wearing full crinolines, viewing apainting of a woman in early nineteenth-century new-Grecian attire – actually more of theirgrandmothers’ era than their mothers’.

Arabella Maria: ‘Only to think, Julia dear, that our mothers wore such ridiculous fashions asthese!’ Both: ‘Ha! ha! ha! ha!’

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