The steam packet ship Herald made her first voyage from Bristol to Hayle on 24 September 1831, ushering a new service which would bring numerous benefits to west Cornwall over the next 30 years.

Elisha Trewartha is settling into the working day. He’s a “middle-aged man… the foreman” at Upton Towans Dynamite Works, Gwithian.

It’s first thing Monday morning. Never a good time, not for anyone who has to work for a living, but on the deck of the steamer Hayle the men are getting back into harness for another normal week’s routine.

Cornubia was the only iron passenger vessel ever built in Cornwall and between 4000 and 5000 people are estimated to have turned up to watch the launch. 

“arrived the Usk steamer from Bristol, having on Board the three Chartists (Frost, Jones and Williams) who were condemned to death for high treason after the late riots at Newport,"

At first, it feels like an earthquake. Windows shatter in Penzance, and oscillation disturbs mid-morning visitors to St John’s Hall. At St Ives, shops lose their plate glass and roofs are damaged. The earth rumbles; a “dull, hollow boom” is in the air. But then the rumours start.....