Broadside entitled 'Minerva of Leith!'

Commentary

This report begins: 'A Full and Particular Account of the Loss of the Brig Minerva of Leith, belonging to Messrs Stenhouse, bound from Dublin to Glasgow, with Grain, which violently Struck on the Horse Island, off Ardrossan, Ayrshire, on Tuesday Morning, 18th December 1821'. This account was sourced from the 'Ayr Advertiser'.

According to this account, the tragic loss of the Minerva of Leith resulted in the deaths of five individuals: a crewman named Peter Porter and four passengers. Although the synopsis at the top of the sheet suggests that only three passengers lost their lives, this information is contradicted in the main report. Inaccuracies such as this were common in broadsides. In order to provide the reader with news that was current, broadside producers had to work extremely fast. Inevitably, this often led to spelling mistakes and factual errors.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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