The emigrant ship Ocean Monarch caught fire shortly after leaving Liverpool for Boston in August 1848. The disaster unfolded near Great Orme's Head off the coast of North Wales, where nearby vessels rescued many passengers. More than 170 people nevertheless died through fire, drowning or failed escape attempts.

The burning ship generated commemorative poems and broadsides that presented the emigrants' suffering and rescuers' courage to a mass readership. Such verse formed part of a popular maritime literature linking Atlantic migration with danger, separation and providential judgement.