Event    From 3/9/1878  To 3/9/1878

Princess Alice disaster

Categories: Tragedy, Transport

London's worst peacetime disaster.
The Princess Alice was a passenger paddle steamer, making what was called a 'moonlight trip', from Swan Pier near London Bridge to the former Rosherville Pleasure Gardens in Gravesend.
At about 7.40 p.m. on her return journey, she was preparing to disembark passengers at Woolwich. At the same time, the coal ship S.S. Bywell Castle was coming down river in the opposite direction. Her master became aware of the steamer, and set a course to pass it to starboard. The Princess Alice was labouring against the tide, and her master followed the normal practice of seeking the quieter water on the south side and altered her course to port, bringing her into the path of the Bywell Castle.
Although the engines of the Bywell Castle were slammed into reverse, it was too late and the steamer was torn in half, sinking in just four minutes.
Many passengers couldn't swim, but the death rate was almost certainly increased by the fact that the twice-daily release of 75 million gallons of raw sewage from outfalls at Barking and Crossness had occurred just one hour before the collision. The inquest suggested that many deaths were caused by severe vomiting and subsequent dehydration after ingesting the filthy water
No records were kept at the time, but it was estimated that about 900 passengers were on board. Of these, between 650 and 700 were believed to have died.
A lot of the passengers were below decks in the saloon, and the speed of the sinking gave no chance of escape. In fact, when the wreck was raised, many of those who drowned were still crushed together standing upright.
The masters of both ships were deemed to have had equal responsibility for the accident.
To a lesser extent, history repeated itself on the Thames, when in August 1989, 51 people were drowned when the pleasure steamer The Marchioness was rammed by the 'Bowbelle' dredger.

Londonist provides a link to a 5-minute documentary film on this, Britain's worst transport disaster.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Princess Alice disaster

Commemorated ati

Princess Alice Disaster - memorial

The numbers of passengers and victims differ from most other sources. Source...

Read More

Princess Alice Disaster - mural

{Four plaques to the right of the mural:} Creekmouth Heritage Project About ...

Read More

Princess Alice disaster - plaque

Waymarking informs that this plaque is on the site of Creekmouth Village, ove...

Read More

Other Subjects

Fm. Hamish Pettit

Fm. Hamish Pettit

Firefighter. He was killed when part of the roof collapsed while he was fighting a fire at the Worsley Hotel, Clifton Gardens, Paddington. He was 25 years old. From The Red Plaque website: "On the...

Person, Emergency Services, Tragedy

2 memorials
Armenian Genocide

Armenian Genocide

Inflicted by the Turkish government on the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire, 1915-18 and 1920-3, with one and a half million victims.  However it is a sensitive issue, with the numbers dis...

Event, Tragedy, Armenia, Turkey

1 memorial
Ladbroke Grove rail disaster / Paddington rail crash

Ladbroke Grove rail disaster / Paddington rail crash

Also referred to as the Paddington rail crash. At 8.06am, a Thames train bound for Bedwyn in Wiltshire left Paddington station. Two minutes later, as it sped along at 41mph, it went through a signa...

Event, Tragedy, Transport

2 memorials
Ada Rosa van Dantzig

Ada Rosa van Dantzig

Dantzig was a Dutch Jew who came to London to study. She returned to the Netherlands intending to help her family flee the Nazis. Instead she was captured and killed in Auschwitz, Poland, with most...

Person, Tragedy, Netherlands, Poland

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial

Previously viewed

Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi

Composer, musician, music publisher, piano manufacturer.  Born Italy.  Moved to London at the end of 1774 from where he went on tours of Europe.  Moved out towards the end of his life and died in W...

Person, Music / songs

1 memorial
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Born and died in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birth date is usually given as the 23rd, the same date as his death, but all that is actually known is that he was baptised 3 days later, on the 26th. Even...

Person, Poetry, Seriously Famous, Theatre

47 memorials