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94-591: SS Princess Alice , formerly PS Bute , was a British passenger paddle steamer that sank on 3 September 1878 after a collision with the collier SS  Bywell Castle on the River Thames . Between 600 and 700 people died, all from Princess Alice , the greatest loss of life of any British inland waterway shipping accident. No passenger list or headcount was made, so the exact figure of deaths has never been known. Built in Greenock , Scotland, in 1865, Princess Alice

188-458: A barge -hauler, Charlotte Dundas , for the Forth and Clyde Canal Company . It successfully hauled two 70-ton barges almost 20 mi (32 km) in 6 hours against a strong headwind on test in 1802. Enthusiasm was high, but some directors of the company were concerned about the banks of the canal being damaged by the wash from a powered vessel, and no more were ordered. While Charlotte Dundas

282-581: A sixpenny fund, a memorial Celtic cross was erected in Woolwich Cemetery in May 1880. St Mary Magdalene Woolwich , the local parish church, also later installed a stained-glass memorial window. In 2008 a National Lottery grant funded the installation of a memorial plaque at Barking Creek to mark the 130th anniversary of the sinking. Princess Alice ' s owner, the London Steamboat Co, purchased

376-610: A boat with a pair of paddlewheels at each end turned by men operating compound cranks. The concept was improved by the Italian Roberto Valturio in 1463, who devised a boat with five sets, where the parallel cranks are all joined to a single power source by one connecting rod, an idea adopted by his compatriot Francesco di Giorgio . In 1539, Spanish engineer Blasco de Garay received the support of Charles V to build ships equipped with manually-powered side paddle wheels. From 1539 to 1543, Garay built and launched five ships,

470-462: A collision course, and ordered the engines to be put into "reverse full speed", it was too late. Princess Alice was struck on the starboard side just in front of the paddle box at an angle of 13 degrees; she split in two and sank within four minutes—her boilers separating from the structure as it sank. The crew of Bywell Castle dropped ropes from their deck for the passengers of Princess Alice to climb; they also threw anything that would float into

564-448: A course to pass starboard of them. Grinstead, travelling up the river against the tide, followed the normal watermen's practice of seeking the slack water on the south side of the river. He altered the ship's course, bringing her into the path of Bywell Castle . Seeing the imminent collision, Grinstead shouted to the larger vessel "Where are you coming to! Good God! Where are you coming to!" Although Dix tried to manoeuvre his vessel out of

658-470: A day to search for bodies; they were paid a minimum of five shillings for each one they recovered, which sometimes led to fights over the corpses. One of those picked up was that of Grinstead, Princess Alice ' s captain. Because of the pollution from the sewage and local industrial output, the bodies from the Thames were covered with slime, which was found difficult to clean off; the corpses began to rot at

752-562: A day. Great Western , however, was actually built for the transatlantic trade, and so had sufficient coal for the passage; Sirius had to burn furniture and other items after running out of coal. Great Western ' s more successful crossing began the regular sailing of powered vessels across the Atlantic. Beaver was the first coastal steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Paddle steamers helped open Japan to

846-626: A double-hulled boat that was propelled on the Firth of Forth by men working a capstan that drove paddles on each side. One of the first functioning steamships , Palmipède , which was also the first paddle steamer, was built in France in 1774 by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy and his colleagues. The 13 m (42 ft 8 in) steamer with rotating paddles sailed on the Doubs River in June and July 1776. In 1783,

940-408: A faster pace than normal, and many of the corpses were unusually bloated. Victims' clothing also began to rot quickly and was discoloured after immersion in the polluted water. Sixteen of those who survived died within two weeks, and several others were ill. On 4 September Charles Carttar, the coroner for West Kent, opened the inquest for his region. That day he took the jury to view the corpses at

1034-485: A long ocean voyage crossing the Atlantic Ocean was SS  Savannah , built in 1819 expressly for this service. Savannah set out for Liverpool on May 22, 1819, sighting Ireland after 23 days at sea. This was the first powered crossing of the Atlantic, although Savannah was built as a sailing ship with a steam auxiliary; she also carried a full rig of sail for when winds were favorable, being unable to complete

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1128-448: A means of propulsion comes from the fourth– or fifth-century military treatise De Rebus Bellicis (chapter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes an ox-driven paddle-wheel warship: Animal power, directed by the resources on ingenuity, drives with ease and swiftness, wherever utility summons it, a warship suitable for naval combats, which, because of its enormous size, human frailty as it were prevented from being operated by

1222-534: A new market, but paddle-steamers began regular short coastal trips soon after. In 1816 Pierre Andriel, a French businessman, bought in London the 15  hp (11 kW) paddle steamer Margery (later renamed Elise ) and made an eventful London- Le Havre -Paris crossing, encountering heavy weather on the way. He later operated his ship as a river packet on the Seine, between Paris and Le Havre. The first paddle-steamer to make

1316-551: A new paddle steamer by de Jouffroy, Pyroscaphe , successfully steamed up the river Saône for 15 minutes before the engine failed. Bureaucracy and the French Revolution thwarted further progress by de Jouffroy. The next successful attempt at a paddle-driven steam ship was by Scottish engineer William Symington , who suggested steam power to Patrick Miller of Dalswinton . Experimental boats built in 1788 and 1789 worked successfully on Lochmaben Loch. In 1802, Symington built

1410-472: A number still operate. European sidewheelers, such as PS  Waverley , connect the wheels with solid drive shafts that limit maneuverability and give the craft a wide turning radius. Some were built with paddle clutches that disengage one or both paddles so they can turn independently. However, wisdom gained from early experience with sidewheelers deemed that they be operated with clutches out, or as solid-shaft vessels. Crews noticed that as ships approached

1504-477: A paddle wheel is normally enclosed in a paddlebox to minimise splashing. The three types of paddle wheel steamer are sidewheeler, with one paddlewheel amidships on each side; sternwheeler, with a single paddlewheel at the stern ; and (rarely) inboard, with the paddlewheel mounted in a recess amidships. The earliest steam vessel s were sidewheelers, and the type was by far the dominant mode of marine steam propulsion, both for steamships and steamboats, until

1598-665: A paddle-wheel ship from China is in the History of the Southern Dynasties , compiled in the 7th century but describing the naval ships of the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) used by admiral Wang Zhen'e in his campaign against the Qiang in 418 AD. The ancient Chinese mathematician and astronomer Zu Chongzhi (429–500) had a paddle-wheel ship built on the Xinting River (south of Nanjing ) known as

1692-462: A rod and lever. The geometry is designed such that the paddles are kept almost vertical for the short duration that they are in the water. The use of a paddle wheel in navigation appears for the first time in the mechanical treatise of the Roman engineer Vitruvius ( De architectura , X 9.5–7), where he describes multigeared paddle wheels working as a ship odometer . The first mention of paddle wheels as

1786-494: A side,". The standard Chinese term "wheel ship" was used by the Song period, whereas a litany of colorful terms were used to describe it beforehand. In the 12th century, the Song government used paddle-wheel ships en masse to defeat opposing armies of pirates armed with their own paddle-wheel ships. At the Battle of Caishi in 1161, paddle-wheelers were also used with great success against

1880-419: A simple paddle wheel, where the paddles are fixed around the periphery, power is lost due to churning of the water as the paddles enter and leave the water surface. Ideally, the paddles should remain vertical while under water. This ideal can be approximated by use of levers and linkages connected to a fixed eccentric. The eccentric is fixed slightly forward of the main wheel centre. It is coupled to each paddle by

1974-541: A steam-powered desalinator created by Garay for a steam boiler. In 1705, Papin constructed a ship powered by hand-cranked paddles. An apocryphal story originating in 1851 by Louis Figuire held that this ship was steam-powered rather than hand-powered and that it was therefore the first steam-powered vehicle of any kind. The myth was refuted as early as 1880 by Ernst Gerland  [ de ] , though still it finds credulous expression in some contemporary scholarly work. In 1787, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton invented

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2068-472: Is a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", each of which is equal to 100 cubic feet (2.83 m ). Replaced by Gross Tonnage (GT), gross register tonnage uses the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel as its basis for volume. Typically this is used for dockage fees, canal transit fees, and similar purposes where it is appropriate to charge based on the size of the entire vessel. Internationally, GRT may be abbreviated as BRT for

2162-416: Is fitted with numerous, regularly spaced paddle blades (called floats or buckets). The bottom quarter or so of the wheel travels under water. An engine rotates the paddle wheel in the water to produce thrust , forward or backward as required. More advanced paddle-wheel designs feature "feathering" methods that keep each paddle blade closer to vertical while in the water to increase efficiency. The upper part of

2256-712: The American Civil War of 1861–1865. With the arrival of ironclad battleships from the late 1850s, the last remaining paddle frigates were decommissioned and sold into merchant-navy service by the 1870s. These included Miami , which became one of the first Boston steamers in 1867. At the start of the First World War , the Royal Navy requisitioned more than fifty pleasure paddle steamers for use as auxiliary minesweepers . The large spaces on their decks intended for promenading passengers proved to be ideal for handling

2350-717: The Jin dynasty (1115–1234) navy. The Chinese used the paddle-wheel ship even during the First Opium War (1839–1842) and for transport around the Pearl River during the early 20th century. The first seagoing trip of a paddle steamer was by the Albany in 1808. It steamed from the Hudson River along the coast to the Delaware River . This was purely for the purpose of moving a river-boat to

2444-711: The Moorsom Commission in 1849. Gross and net register tonnages were replaced by gross tonnage and net tonnage , respectively, when the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted The International Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships on 23 June 1969. The new tonnage regulations entered into force for all new ships on 18 July 1982, but existing vessels were given a migration period of 12 years to ensure that ships were given reasonable economic safeguards, since port and other dues are charged according to ship's tonnage. Since 18 July 1994

2538-662: The River Clyde in 1812. In 1812, the first U.S. Mississippi River paddle steamer began operating out of New Orleans. By 1814, Captain Henry Shreve had developed a "steamboat" suitable for local conditions. Landings in New Orleans went from 21 in 1814 to 191 in 1819, and over 1,200 in 1833. The first stern-wheeler was designed by Gerhard Moritz Roentgen from Rotterdam, and used between Antwerp and Ghent in 1827. Team boats , paddle boats driven by horses, were used for ferries

2632-696: The River Thames ; the company renamed the vessel Princess Alice , after Queen Victoria 's third child . In 1870 she was sold to the Woolwich Steam Packet Company and was operated as an excursion steamer; the company later changed its name to the London Steamboat Company. In 1873 the ship carried Naser al-Din Shah Qajar , the Shah of Persia , up the Thames to Greenwich , and became known to many locals as "The Shah's boat". When Princess Alice

2726-563: The Thames steamers which took passengers from London to Southend-on-Sea and Margate , Clyde steamers that connected Glasgow with the resort of Rothsay and the Köln-Düsseldorfer cruise steamers on the River Rhine . Paddle steamer services continued into the mid-20th century, when ownership of motor cars finally made them obsolete except for a few heritage examples. The first mention of

2820-567: The Woolwich Town Hall and Woolwich Pier. There were more bodies on the northern bank, but this lay outside his jurisdiction. Charles Lewis, the coroner for South Essex, visited the Board of Trade and the Home Office to try to have the remains in his jurisdiction moved to Woolwich to allow one inquest that could cover all the victims and hear the evidence in only one location, but the law meant that

2914-498: The " thousand league boat ". When campaigning against Hou Jing in 552, the Liang dynasty (502–557) admiral Xu Shipu employed paddle-wheel boats called "water-wheel boats". At the siege of Liyang in 573, the admiral Huang Faqiu employed foot-treadle powered paddle-wheel boats. A successful paddle-wheel warship design was made in China by Prince Li Gao in 784 AD, during an imperial examination of

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3008-423: The 1820s, paddle steamers were used to take tourists from the rapidly expanding industrial cities on river cruises, or to the newly established seaside resorts , where pleasure piers were built to allow passengers to disembark regardless of the state of the tide. Later, these paddle steamers were fitted with luxurious saloons in an effort to compete with the facilities available on the railways. Notable examples are

3102-418: The Atlantic by paddle steamer began on September 18, 1969, the first leg of a journey to conclude six months and nine days later. The steam paddle tug Eppleton Hall was never intended for oceangoing service, but nevertheless was steamed from Newcastle to San Francisco. As the voyage was intended to be completed under power, the tug was rigged as steam propelled with a sail auxiliary. The transatlantic stage of

3196-575: The Board of Trade Regulations and the Regulations of the Thames Conservancy Board, 1872. This stated that if two ships are heading towards each other, they should pass on the port side of each other. As Princess Alice had not followed this procedure, the Board found Princess Alice to blame and that Bywell Castle could not avoid the collision. The company that owned Princess Alice sued the owners of Bywell Castle for £20,000 compensation;

3290-462: The German " Bruttoregistertonne ". Net register tonnage subtracts the volume of spaces not available for carrying cargo, such as engine rooms, fuel tanks and crew quarters, from gross register tonnage. Gross register tonnage is not a measure of the ship's weight or displacement and should not be confused with terms such as deadweight tonnage or displacement . Gross register tonnage was defined by

3384-504: The Mississippi . Recessed or inboard paddlewheel boats were designed to ply narrow and snag-infested backwaters. By recessing the wheel within the hull it was protected somewhat from damage. It was enclosed and could be spun at a high speed to provide acute maneuverability. Most were built with inclined steam cylinders mounted on both sides of the paddleshaft and timed 90 degrees apart like a locomotive, making them instantly reversing. In

3478-496: The Reach, observed an excursion steamer coming up Barking Reach, showing her red and masthead lights, when we ported our helm to keep over towards Tripcock Point. As the vessel neared, observed that the other steamer had ported, and immediately afterwards saw that she had starboarded and was trying to cross our bows, showing her green light close under the port bow. Seeing collision inevitable, stopped our engines and reversed full speed, when

3572-540: The Thames, or of helming a craft such as Princess Alice . Between 7:20 pm and 7:40 pm, Princess Alice had passed Tripcock Point, entered Gallions Reach and come within sight of the North Woolwich Pier—where many passengers were to disembark—when Bywell Castle was sighted. Bywell Castle usually carried coal to Africa, but had just been repainted at a dry dock . She was due to sail to Newcastle to pick up coal bound for Alexandria , Egypt. Harrison

3666-609: The United States from the 1820s–1850s, as they were economical and did not incur licensing costs imposed by the steam navigation monopoly. In the 1850s, they were replaced by steamboats. After the American Civil War, as the expanding railroads took many passengers, the traffic became primarily bulk cargoes. The largest, and one of the last, paddle steamers on the Mississippi was the sternwheeler Sprague . Built in 1901, she pushed coal and petroleum until 1948. In Europe from

3760-606: The Western World in the mid-19th century. The largest paddle-steamer ever built was Brunel's Great Eastern , but it also had screw propulsion and sail rigging. It was 692 ft (211 m) long and weighed 32,000 tons, its paddlewheels being 56 ft (17 m) in diameter. In oceangoing service, paddle steamers became much less useful after the invention of the screw propeller, but they remained in use in coastal service and as river tugboats , thanks to their shallow draught and good maneuverability. The last crossing of

3854-481: The aftermath of the sinking; by the time it closed it had raised £35,000, which was distributed among the victims' families. During the 1880s London's Metropolitan Board of Works began to purify the sewage at Crossness and Beckton, rather than dumping the untreated waste into the river, and a series of six sludge boats were ordered to ship effluent into the North Sea for dumping. The first boat commissioned in June 1887

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3948-540: The boats. News of the sinking was telegraphed back to the centre of London, and soon filtered through to those waiting at Swan Pier for the steamer's return. Relatives made their way to the London Steamboat offices near Blackfriars to wait for more news; many took the train from London Bridge to Woolwich . The crowds grew during the night and into the following day, as both relatives and sightseers travelled to Woolwich; additional police were drafted in to help control

4042-413: The centre of the river by currents; the ship then attempted to turn to port, which would have kept her close to the river's southern bank, but in doing so cut across the bows of Bywell Castle . Several masters of other ships moored nearby who witnessed the collision agreed with this series of events. Princess Alice ' s chief mate denied that his ship had changed direction. During the inquest evidence

4136-458: The corpses, the burials of many of those still unidentified took place on 9 September at Woolwich cemetery in a mass grave; several thousand people were in attendance. The coffins all carried a police identification number, which was also attached to the clothing and personal items which were retained to aid later identification. The same day over 150 private funerals of victims took place. The first two weeks of Carttar's inquest were given over to

4230-511: The cost was two shillings . Princess Alice left Rosherville at about 6:30 pm on her return to Swan Pier; she was carrying close to her full capacity of passengers, although no lists were kept, and the exact number of people on board is unknown. The master of Princess Alice , 47-year-old Captain William Grinstead, allowed his helmsman to stay at Gravesend, and replaced him with a seaman named John Eyers. Eyers had little experience of

4324-445: The crowds, and deal with the remains that were being landed. Reports came in of corpses being washed up as far upstream as Limehouse and down to Erith . When bodies were landed, they were stored locally for identification, rather than centrally, although most ended up at Woolwich Dockyard . Relatives had to travel between several locations on both sides of the Thames to search for missing family members. Local watermen were hired for £2

4418-423: The dead could not be moved until the inquest had been opened and adjourned. Instead, he opened his inquest to formally identify the bodies under his authority, then adjourned proceedings until after Carttar's case had come to a conclusion. He issued burial orders, and the remains were then transferred to Woolwich. During low tide, part of Princess Alice ' s rail could be seen above the waterline. Plans to raise

4512-401: The dock, passengers moved to the side of the ship ready to disembark. The shift in weight, added to independent movements of the paddles, could lead to imbalance and potential capsizing . Paddle tugs were frequently operated with clutches in, as the lack of passengers aboard meant that independent paddle movement could be used safely and the added maneuverability exploited to the full. Although

4606-639: The first screw-driven warships, HMS  Rattler  (1843) , demonstrated her superiority over paddle steamers during numerous trials, including one in 1845 where she pulled a paddle-driven sister ship backwards in a tug of war . However, paddle warships were used extensively by the Russian Navy during the Crimean War of 1853–1856, and by the United States Navy during the Mexican War of 1846–1848 and

4700-677: The first sternwheelers were invented in Europe, they saw the most service in North America, especially on the Mississippi River. Enterprise was built at Brownsville, Pennsylvania , in 1814 as an improvement over the less efficient side-wheelers. The second stern-wheeler built, Washington of 1816, had two decks and served as the prototype for all subsequent steamboats of the Mississippi , including those made famous in Mark Twain 's book Life on

4794-463: The formal identification of the bodies, and visits to the wreck site to examine the remains of Princess Alice . From 16 September the proceedings began to examine the causes of the collision. Carttar began by bemoaning the media coverage of the event, which suggested strongly that Bywell Castle had been in error and should take the blame. He focused his proceedings on William Beechey, the first body to have been positively identified; Carttar explained to

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4888-484: The gale which proved fatal to the Kenmure Castle . The Bywell Castle carried a crew of 40 men and her cargo consisted of Egyptian produce. 51°30′38″N 00°05′25″E  /  51.51056°N 0.09028°E  / 51.51056; 0.09028 Paddle steamer In the early 19th century, paddle wheels were the predominant way of propulsion for steam-powered boats. In the late 19th century, paddle propulsion

4982-427: The hands of men. In its hull, or hollow interior, oxen, yoked in pairs to capstans, turn wheels attached to the sides of the ship; paddles, projecting above the circumference or curved surface of the wheels, beating the water with their strokes like oar-blades as the wheels revolve, work with an amazing and ingenious effect, their action producing rapid motion. This warship, moreover, because of its own bulk and because of

5076-519: The increasing adoption of screw propulsion from the 1850s. Though the side wheels and enclosing sponsons make them wider than sternwheelers, they may be more maneuverable, since they can sometimes move the paddles at different speeds, and even in opposite directions. This extra maneuverability makes side-wheelers popular on the narrower, winding rivers of the Murray–Darling system in Australia, where

5170-491: The journey she called at Blackwall , North Woolwich and Rosherville Gardens ; many of the Londoners on board were travelling to Rosherville to visit the pleasure gardens that had been built 40 years before. As the London Steamboat Co. owned several ships, passengers could use their tickets interchangeably on the day, stopping off to travel on or back on different vessels if they wanted; for tickets from Swan Pier to Rosherville,

5264-604: The jury that whatever verdict they reached on Beechey would apply to the other victims. Numerous Thames boatmen appeared as witnesses, all of whom had been active in the area at the time; their stories of the path taken by Princess Alice differed considerably. Most pleasure craft coming upriver on the Thames would round Tripcock Point and head for the northern bank to take advantage of more favourable currents. Had Princess Alice done that, Bywell Castle would have gone clearly astern of her. Several witnesses stated that once Princess Alice rounded Tripcock Point she had been pushed into

5358-521: The machinery working inside it, joins battle with such pounding force that it easily wrecks and destroys all enemy warships coming at close quarters. Italian physician Guido da Vigevano ( circa 1280–1349), planning for a new crusade, made illustrations for a paddle boat that was propelled by manually turned compound cranks . One of the drawings of the Anonymous Author of the Hussite Wars shows

5452-545: The minesweeping booms and cables, and the paddles allowed them to operate in coastal shallows and estuaries. These were so successful that a new class of paddle ships, the Racecourse-class minesweepers , were ordered and 32 of them were built before the end of the war. In the Second World War , some thirty pleasure paddle steamers were again requisitioned; an added advantage was that their wooden hulls did not activate

5546-494: The most famous being the modified Portuguese carrack La Trinidad , which surpassed a nearby galley in speed and maneuverability on June 17, 1543, in the harbor of Barcelona . The project, however, was discontinued. 19th century writer Tomás González claimed to have found proof that at least some of these vessels were steam-powered, but this theory was discredited by the Spanish authorities. It has been proposed that González mistook

5640-530: The necessary precaution of easing, stopping and reversing her engines in time and that the Princess Alice contributed to the collision by not stopping and going astern; that all collisions in the opinion of the jury might in future be avoided if proper and stringent rules and regulations were laid down for all steam navigation on the River Thames. Addenda: Running at the same time as the coroner's inquest

5734-564: The new magnetic mines. The paddle ships formed six minesweeping flotillas , based at ports around the British coast. Other paddle steamers were converted to anti-aircraft ships. More than twenty paddle steamers were used as emergency troop transports during the Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940, where they were able to get close inshore to embark directly from the beach. One example was PS  Medway Queen , which saved an estimated 7,000 men over

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5828-490: The nine days of the evacuation, and claimed to have shot down three German aircraft. Another paddle minesweeper, HMS  Oriole , was deliberately beached twice to allow soldiers to cross to other vessels using her as a jetty. The paddle steamers between them were estimated to have rescued 26,000 Allied troops during the operation, for the loss of six of them. Gross registered ton Gross register tonnage ( GRT , grt , g.r.t. , gt ), or gross registered tonnage ,

5922-657: The owners of Bywell Castle counter-sued for £2,000. The case was heard in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice in late 1878. After two weeks, the judgment was that both vessels were to blame for the collision. As no passenger list was kept on Princess Alice —or a record of the number of people on board—it was not possible to determine precisely the number of people who died: figures vary from 600 to 700. The Times reported that "the coroner believes that there are from 60 to 80 bodies unrecovered from

6016-540: The passenger paddle steamer Bute on 29 March 1865. She entered service on 1 July 1865. The ship was 219.4 ft (66.9 m) long and 20.2 ft (6.2 m) at the beam , and measured 432 gross registered tons . Bute had been built for the Wemyss Bay Railway Company, for whom she carried passengers between Wemyss Bay and Rothesay . In 1867 she was sold to the Waterman's Steam Packet Co. to travel on

6110-563: The point where London's sewage pumping stations were sited. The twice-daily release of 75 million imperial gallons (340,000 m) of raw sewage from the sewer outfalls Abbey Mills , at Barking , and the Crossness Pumping Station had occurred one hour before the collision. In a letter to The Times shortly after the collision, a chemist described the outflow as: Two continuous columns of decomposed fermenting sewage, hissing like soda-water with baneful gases, so black that

6204-486: The provinces by the Tang dynasty (618–907) emperor. The Chinese Song dynasty (960–1279) issued the construction of many paddle-wheel ships for its standing navy , and according to the British biochemist, historian, and sinologist Joseph Needham : "...between 1132 and 1183 (AD) a great number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including sternwheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels

6298-406: The raised section of Princess Alice . Fights broke out in places for the best vantage point, and people rowed up to the wreck to break off souvenirs. An additional 250 policemen were drafted in to help control the crowds. That evening, after most of the crowd had gone home, the aft section of the ship was raised and beached next to the bow. Because of the accelerated rate of decomposition of many of

6392-408: The requirements of the role, and that they should be replaced by steam launches . The first two launches entered service in the mid-1880s; eight were working by 1898. The Royal Albert Dock , which opened in 1880, helped to separate heavy goods traffic from smaller boats; this and global adoption of emergency signalling lights on boats both helped avoid future tragedies. After 23,000 people donated to

6486-534: The river. Bywell Castle moored at Deptford to await the action of the authorities and the inquest. That night Harrison and Belding, the first mate , wrote the ship's log to describe the event: At 6:30 left the West Dock, Millwall, in charge of Mr Dicks, [ sic ] pilot; proceeding slowly, the master and pilot being on the upper bridge ... Light air and weather little hazy. At 7:45 pm proceeding at half speed down Gallions Reach. Being about centre of

6580-504: The river. The total number of lives lost must thus have been from 630 to 650". Michael Foley, in his examination of disasters on the Thames, observes that "there was no proof of the final death toll. However, around 640 bodies were eventually recovered". The sinking was the worst inland disaster on water in the UK. A Mansion House fund for the victims had been opened by the Lord Mayor of London in

6674-570: The sea. The Marine Police Force —the branch of the Metropolitan Police that had responsibility for policing the Thames—were provided with steam launches , after the rowing boats used up to that point had proved insufficient for the rescue. Five years after the collision Bywell Castle sank in the Bay of Biscay with the loss of all forty crew. Caird & Company of Greenock , Scotland, launched

6768-562: The ship began on 5 September with a diver examining the wreckage. He found the vessel had broken into three sections—the fore, aft and boilers. He reported back that there were still several bodies on board. Work began the following day to raise the larger fore section, which was 27 metres (90 ft) long. This was beached at low tide—2:00 am on 7 September—at Woolwich; while she was being pulled ashore, Bywell Castle steamed past, leaving London, but without her captain, who remained. The following day large crowds visited Woolwich again to view

6862-469: The statement. The verdict was: That the death of the said William Beachey and others was occasioned by drowning in the waters of the River Thames from a collision that occurred after sunset between a steam vessel called the Bywell Castle and a steam vessel called the Princess Alice whereby the Princess Alice was cut in two and sunk, such collision not being wilful; that the Bywell Castle did not take

6956-445: The tidal Thames as a pleasure-ground". Bywell Castle was reported missing on 29 January 1883 sailing between Alexandria and Hull ; it carried a cargo of cottonseed and beans. In February 1883 newspapers carried a final report: It is believed that the steamer Bywell Castle , which ran down the saloon boat Princess Alice , off Woolwich, some years ago, has been lost in the Bay of Biscay, in

7050-404: The time for assistance, which was rendered by several boats from shore and a boat from a passing steamer. The excursion steamer, which turned out to be Princess Alice , turning over and sinking under the bows. Succeeded in rescuing a great many passengers and anchored for the night. About 8:30 pm the steamer Duke of Teck came alongside and took off such passengers as had not been taken on shore in

7144-416: The two vessels collided, the bow of Bywell Castle cutting into the other steamer, which was crowded with passengers, with a dreadful crash. Took immediate means for saving life by hauling up over the bows several men of the passengers, throwing rope's-ends over all round the ship, throwing over four lifebuoys, a hold ladder and several planks, and getting out three boats, keeping the whistle blowing loudly all

7238-489: The voyage under power alone. In 1822, Charles Napier 's Aaron Manby , the world's first iron ship, made the first direct steam crossing from London to Paris and the first seagoing voyage by an iron ship. In 1838, Sirius , a fairly small steam packet built for the Cork to London route, became the first vessel to cross the Atlantic under sustained steam power, beating Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's much larger Great Western by

7332-552: The voyage was completed exactly 150 years after the voyage of Savannah . As of 2022, the PS Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world. Beginning in the 1820s, the British Royal Navy began building paddle-driven steam frigates and steam sloops . By 1850 these had become obsolete due to the development of the propeller – which was more efficient and less vulnerable to cannon fire. One of

7426-487: The water for people to hold. Other crew from Bywell Castle launched their lifeboat and rescued 14 people, and crews from boats moored nearby did the same. Residents from both banks of the Thames, particularly the boatmen of local factories, launched vessels to rescue who they could. Many of the passengers from Princess Alice were unable to swim; the long heavy dresses worn by women also hindered their efforts to stay afloat. Princess Alice ' s sister ship, Duke of Teck ,

7520-460: The water is stained for miles and discharging a corrupt charnel-house odour, that will be remembered by all ... as being particularly depressing and sickening. The water was also polluted by the untreated output from Beckton Gas Works , and several local chemical factories. Adding to the foulness of the water, a fire in Thames Street earlier that day had resulted in oil and petroleum entering

7614-495: The wreck of the vessel from the Thames Conservancy for £350; the engines were salvaged and the remainder sent to a ship breaker . The London Steamboat Co was bankrupt within six years, and its successor went into financial difficulties three years after that. According to the historian Jerry White , along with competition from the railways and bus services, the sinking of Princess Alice "had some impact ... in blighting

7708-438: The wrong sailing line and was hit by Bywell Castle ; the point of the collision was the area of the Thames where 75 million imperial gallons (340,000 m) of London's raw sewage had just been released. Princess Alice broke into three parts and sank quickly; her passengers drowned in the heavily polluted waters. Grinstead died in the incident, so the subsequent investigations never established which course he thought he

7802-456: Was a Board of Trade inquiry. Specific charges were laid against Captain Harrison, two of the crew members of Bywell Castle , and against Long, the first mate of Princess Alice ; all had their licences suspended at the start of the hearing. The Board of Trade proceedings began on 14 October 1878 and continued until 6 November. The board found that Princess Alice had breached Rule 29, Section (d) of

7896-566: Was acquired by the Woolwich Steam Packet Company, the company made several alterations to the ship, including the installation of new boilers and making the five bulkheads watertight. The vessel had been inspected and was passed as safe by the Board of Trade . In 1878 another survey by the Board of Trade allowed the ship to carry a maximum of 936 passengers between London and Gravesend in calm water. The collier SS  Bywell Castle

7990-571: Was built in Newcastle in 1869 and was owned by Messrs Hall of Newcastle. Her gross registered tonnage was 1376, she was 254.2 ft (77.5 m) long and 32 ft (9.8 m) at the beam; her depth of hold was 19 ft (5.8 m). The master was Captain Thomas Harrison. On 3 September 1878 Princess Alice was making what was billed as a "Moonlight Trip" from Swan Pier, near London Bridge , downstream to Sheerness , Kent, and back. During

8084-605: Was employed for two years in Scotland before being purchased by the Waterman's Steam Packet Co to carry passengers on the Thames. By 1878 she was owned by the London Steamboat Co and was captained by William R. H. Grinstead; the ship carried passengers on a stopping service from Swan Pier, near London Bridge , downstream to Sheerness , Kent, and back. On her homeward journey, at an hour after sunset on 3 September 1878, she passed Tripcock Point and entered Gallions Reach . She took

8178-400: Was largely superseded by the screw propeller and other marine propulsion systems that have a higher efficiency, especially in rough or open water. Paddle wheels continue to be used by small, pedal-powered paddle boats and by some ships that operate tourist voyages. The latter are often powered by diesel engines. The paddle wheel is a large steel framework wheel. The outer edge of the wheel

8272-407: Was like the generality of firemen. He was rather the worse for drink, but not so bad that he could not take his watch". Evidence was also taken concerning the state of the Thames at the point the ship sank, and of the construction and stability of Princess Alice . On 14 November, after twelve hours of discussion, the inquest released its verdict; four members of the nineteen-member jury refused to sign

8366-541: Was named Bazalgette —after Joseph Bazalgette , who had rebuilt London's sewer system . The practice of dumping at sea continued until December 1998. Until Princess Alice sank, the Marine Police Force —the branch of the Metropolitan Police that had responsibility for policing the Thames—relied on rowing boats for their work. The inquest into the sinking of Princess Alice found that these were insufficient for

8460-428: Was steaming ten minutes behind her; she arrived too late to rescue anyone left in the water. Only two people who had been below decks or in the saloon survived the collision; a diver who later examined the saloon reported that the passengers were jammed together in the doorways, mostly still upright. About 130 people were rescued from the collision, but several died later from ingesting the water. Princess Alice sank at

8554-409: Was supposed to take. The jury in the coroner 's inquest considered both vessels at fault, but more blame was put on Bywell Castle ; the inquiry run by the Board of Trade found that Princess Alice had not followed the correct path and her captain was culpable. In the aftermath of the sinking, changes were made to the release and treatment of sewage, and how it was transported to, and released into,

8648-447: Was taken from George Purcell, the stoker on Bywell Castle , who, on the night of the sinking, had told several people that the captain and crew of the ship were drunk. Under oath he changed his claims, and stated that they were sober, and that he had no recollection of claiming that anyone was drunk. Evidence given by other members of Bywell Castle ' s crew showed it had been Purcell who had been drunk; one crewman said that "Purcell

8742-458: Was the first commercial paddle steamer and steamboat , the first commercial success was possibly Robert Fulton 's Clermont in New York, which went into commercial service in 1807 between New York City and Albany . Many other paddle-equipped river boats followed all around the world; the first in Europe being PS  Comet designed by Henry Bell which started a scheduled passenger service on

8836-522: Was unfamiliar with the conditions, so employed Christopher Dix, an experienced Thames river pilot , although he was not obliged to do so. As Bywell Castle had a raised forecastle , Dix did not have a clear view in front of him, so a seaman was placed on lookout. On leaving Millwall, Bywell Castle proceeded down river at five knots; she kept roughly to the middle of the river, except where other craft were in her way. Approaching Gallions Reach, Dix saw Princess Alice ' s red port light approaching on

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