Almost every government tries to maximize daylight for agricultural production and to save energy consumption. Just like Daylight Saving Time in America, the British Summer Time was also introduced around the WWI era. But this tinkering with time sometimes can cause a great mishap, leading to the loss of lives and properties.
The Common Mistakes
Since the introduction of British Summer Time in 1916, the UK government has employed periodic changes of time, mainly based on seasonal changes. Since then, there have been several mistakes that happened because people forgot the clocks have changed. Once, a whole team of footballers turned up an hour late for a Sunday match, as they simply forgot to adjust their clocks! But, such unintentional mistakes are trivial as they cause no serious harm. But one incident overshadowed all due to its seriousness.
The Mishap
Just after one year of implementing British Summer Time, an accident took place in the UK, possibly one of the biggest calamities of this time-changing ritual. In 1917, a schooner ship named Coniston was traveling from Ireland to Millom in Cumbria with a cargo of timber. While coming toward the dock of Millom, the onlookers standing onshore could already see the cargo ship was in trouble. But due to the heavy weather, they were unable to help the crew of the ship. Years later in 1987, the shipwreck of Coniston had emerged overturned on a sandbank in Duddon, with all five people aboard assumed dead or missing. Later, the authorities suggested that the schooner ship might not have witnessed the fate had its captain entered the narrow channel an hour later, avoiding the heavy weather. But it seems, he was following the tide tables which were printed according to GMT as per usual norms, while he would have set his watch to and followed the British Summer Time instead.