Astonishing adventure of Lord Armstrong’s piano

ANOTHER chapter has played out in the astonishing story of a piano owned by inventor and industrialist Lord Armstrong.

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The Broadwood piano back at Cragside, and inset, an Arabella Goddard concert poster

The story begins with Victorian touring star pianist Arabella Goddard, who was hailed as a child prodigy and who performed in front of Queen Victoria at nine years old.

In 1872 she set sail on a world tour, taking her Broadwood grand piano with her.

But on the way to Australia she was marooned off the coast of Queensland when the RMS Flintshire ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. Arabella spent a night in an open boat while the piano was left behind and became used as ballast to keep the ship afloat.

After she and her piano were recovered, she arrived in Sydney, but her agent fell out with the manager of the Victoria Theatre over a shared billing with a local ‘Burlesque Opera’ performer.