The Paddle steamer Princess Alice was one of many pleasure steamers working the Thames in the late nineteenth century. Named after PRINCESS ALICE, Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt and the third daughter of Queen Victoria. Tuesday September 3rd, 1878, was a warm sunny day and about 700 day trippers were enjoying a round trip from London bridge to Sheerness, with several stops along the journey. As the Princess Alice made its way back up river in the evening, passengers prepared for disembarking and the band packed up their instruments, it was the end of an idyllic day.It was about 7.45pm, dusk was falling, and the lights of Woolwich came into sight as the Princess Alice rounded Tripcock point and into Galleons reach.. Shortly before this, a coal ship, the Bywell Castle had left Millwall dock, bound for Newcastle after having been re painted. Both Captains were very experienced, and the Bywell Castle also had a Thames Pilot aboard. As the Princess Alice came into Galleons reach, the two captains saw each others vessels. The pilot of the Bywell Castle was moving at half speed down the middle of the river and observed that the Princess Alice appeared to move towards the north shore and steered his own ship slightly to the south shore. Meanwhile, aboard the Princess Alice, captain Grinstead could see the Bywell castle and assumed it would give way. As the two ships bore down on each other, the pilot of the Bywell Castle could see that a collision was inevitable and gave the order to reverse engines full speed, but it was too late. The giant steel collier quietly sliced the Alice almost in two and within five minutes the paddle steamer slipped beneath the waves taking hundreds of souls to a watery grave. Now a ghastly fight for survival was beginning, made worse by the awful state of the river. Sewage and industrial waste was at that time dumped untreated into the Thames. A few managed to swim to safety, others clung to floating debris and waited to be picked up by rescue boats. In all, only 69 were saved. The exact number of dead is not known, but the most accurate estimates put the figure at around 640. Thames Watermen were paid five shillings for each body they recovered from the river. The inquest that followed lasted for 10 weeks and ended with a verdict of death by misadventure. A board of trade enquiry concluded that The Princess Alice was to blame for the accident for various reasons.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:22:38 +0000