Dublin Port had long been dangerous because it was accessible only at high tide and was subject to sudden storms.
The impact of 400 bodies[1] being washed up on an urban shore effected public and official opinion.
[3] Troops on Prince of Wales may have been deliberately locked below deck while the ship's captain and crew escaped.
Dublin port was hampered by a sandbar, which meant that ships could enter or leave only at high tide.
Sleet and snow fell to such intensity that visibility was reduced to zero; they may not have realised how close they were to shore.
While Rochdale and Prince of Wales were lost, another troop transport, Lark, which left earlier, safely reached Holyhead.
In July 1807, following military successes, Napoleon signed the Treaties of Tilsit with Russia and Prussia leaving him master of central and eastern Europe.
Soldiers were recruited to defend England's coast and to intervene in Spain (see Peninsular War) under Wellington.
Fear of an invasion of Ireland was further met by the building of Martello Towers on the southern and eastern coasts and watchtowers on the other coastlines.
French troops had invaded Ireland on 22 August 1798, under General Humbert, establishing the short-lived Republic of Connacht.
They joined the British Army for a shilling a week and three meals a day – an alternative to terrible poverty.
[8] HM Packet ship Prince of Wales was a sloop of 103 tons with a draught of 11 feet.
Captain Jones, nine seamen, two women with children (family members), and two soldiers escaped on this lifeboat.
They rowed parallel to the shore until one of the sailors fell overboard and found that he was standing in shallow water.
As she swept past Dún Laoghaire, soldiers on board fired their muskets to attract attention.
Anthony McIntyre of the 18th Royal Irish said that the captain launched the lifeboat and that the ladder from the hold to the deck was withdrawn.
The person chiefly responsible was a resident Norwegian master mariner and shipbroker named Richard Toucher, who worked tirelessly campaigning to bring about the construction of a safe port.
His Asylum Harbour was conceived as a refuge for sailing ships in trouble in Dublin Bay.
[17] Howth was a shallow harbour, and as larger ships were built, in particular with the introduction of steam packets from 1819, it became unsuitable, its rocky bottom precluded any dredging.