Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Book Review: "The Last Journey of William Huskisson: The Day the Railway Came of Age", by Simon Garfield
I picked up this book on the day I heard of my Uncle John's death, in an effort to cheer myself up. I spent a long time at the "anchor" store for Chapters just up the street from ROM, looking for something suitable. I almost picked up The Pilgrimage of Grace (about an uprising during the reign of Henry VIII) but balked at the $50 cover price (interesting: online at Chapters.ca it is much cheaper. Hmmm... ;-). In the end I discovered this book tucked away in the "European History" section, and I found the subject intriguing. The book is about a footnote in history: William Huskisson, an MP for Liverpool, who was killed on the "maiden voyage" aboard the first railroad line in September 15, 1830.

I had heard about this incident in a footnote -- am fairly sure it was one of the voluminous footnotes in the recently-read Uncle Tungsten. But what made me pick it up was the fact there's a family connection: not only did my Father grow up in Liverpool, but I actually have inherited a ticket from that very inaugural trip, which, I only noticed recently, had in faint pencil the name "Ockel", which I take for "Okill", a branch of the family to whom I am related. I was half-hoping I'd find a reference to one of the Okills known to have been living in Liverpool at the time, and who may have been minor shipping magnates (it would seem that at least one of them had sufficient social "pull" to get one of the 700 train tickets on offer for the first day of trial rail service).

While I didn't find out anything about my distant relative, I did learn more about the earliest days of steam power, late Georgian politics and the details behind the construction of the first commercial railroad line.

Unfortunately I found it a bit of a muddle, especially when it came to describing the politics of the day. William Huskisson was an MP for the Liverpool area, and the story in part focuses on a period of British political history when the Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister, and was allied with the Ultras, conservatives who opposed many calls for reforms. But while I knew that Wellington was the lauded General who defeated Napoleon, I didn't realize that he was PM until well into the first chapter of the book -- at which point all of the previous political references made sense. It was little things like this, spread throughout the book that made the book seem a jumbled in its explanation of things. It almost as if the author was too close to the subject, assuming the reader would know more of the background than I did and as such I did a lot of re-checking to see that I hadn't missed anything.

Huskisson was what I guess could be described as a Liberal, and managed to push through a number of reforms. Though hardly as sweeping as he would have wished, they ultimately served the greater interest of his country and the future. He seems to have been a somewhat accident-prone man, numerous spills over the years taking their toll on his health. He was a proponent of the railway system proposed to run between Liverpool and Manchester, seeing how the owners of the current canal system operated under near-monopoly conditions, and charging exorbitant fees.

While the politics are pivotal to the telling of the story, the real interest for me lay in the building of the first railroad: surveyors constantly being attacked by the locals, the great interest in the developing project by others from around the world (especially America), fighting against the canal owners who desperately tried to stop the project, and the trials of the first steam engines. All fascinating stuff, and the book reveals the work by the remembered few (George Stephenson), and those who deserved more credit than the gloss usually provided in the history books.

Several trains left on the first inaugural day of service. The first train pulled a highly ornate carriage carrying he Duke, several ambassadors and leading ladies, followed by more coaches carrying other dignitaries, including Huskisson. At one point the train pulled into siding. The passengers decided to stretch their legs and many got out. Huskisson went to see the Duke -- Huskisson had formerly been part of the Duke's cabinet, and with the new railway in his constituency his star was in the ascendant, while the Duke's political aspirations were on a steep decline. This likely bit of politicking ultimately led to Huskisson's demise, as The Rocket came speeding up on the other track, and a dithering Huskisson ultimately did not get out of the way in time. His leg was crushed by the accident. Crowds waved at the speeding train -- which achieved a world-record 35mph -- taking the dying man plus several doctors who were on the train to a local vicarage, where he died in the evening.

The grisly end of Huskisson certainly didn't damp enthusiasm for the railroad, and within a year the hitherto unsuspected need for public travel accounted for most of the railway's profits, its demand outstripping the intended use of it carrying freight between the two cities. Huskisson's death ultimately becomes a footnote in the history of rail travel, especially when seen in the light of subsequent accidents that occurred over the years, but Garfield manages to convey the times in which he lived, and despite the muddled history, it does make for an interesting read.