The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-21 00:00:00

SATURDA Y, SEPT. 21, 1878.

THE COLLISION ON THE THAMES.

?The Rev. A. Styletaan Herring, vicar of St. Paul's,
verkenwell, London, (who attended several aays at
oolwich last week, in order to distribute small sums
t? supply immediate wants,) gives a rough summary
11 the disaster as follows :
L:lisigh upon 900 human beings were in a moment plunged
:4ze the water. Only 130 landed alive. Sixteen have since
111131ted, and many more are in a precarious state. Six
Ihidred and forty mangled corpses received Christian burial
00 at their former happy homes, and 140 at Woolwich.
e hundred and thirty who are believed to have returned
the Princess Alice are still lost, and their bodies undis-
net:ed. Officers and men, military or civil, heart-broken
lelatives and sympathizing friends, have alike striven their
Ler7 best to renter every assistance. Many bereaved kinsfolk
friends suddenly aged by as many years as they
47" daYs :11 their searchings for and among the dead. Some
. over
stl.l-red from their positions by the landing-stage, and
('.lly lifted the coveting of each corpse to catch, if pos•
• „.-ke, a glimpse of some beloved one. Some of the remains
:jut never be forgotten, a huge giant of a man grown more
deous and repulsive each day; a sweet-faced school-girl
test recognition ; a lad of 15, passed by his father, since he
ooked 40."

LP-et-el:ring to the details of the calamity, as to which he
b,11,1 certain special means of information, Mr. Herring
17,fitca that whole families, by one terrible stroke, were
...."014 away; bright homes robbed of their brightest orna-
i ;aents ; a couple married in the morning were corpses in the
tivze,niug ; many engaged ones are now separated for ever:
, left in one family perished together • two widows are
Tic_ With nine orphans each; a Bible-class started with
i'knY-one and but four returned safe; of six young ladies in
, .allege none survived. There was no class but lost
• a member—independent gentlemen, merchants, me-
L';',allies, police, &c,; and many are the harrowing words
2.(1 scenes which Mr. Herring has witnessed and heard and
israioB from dragging into light. Mr. Herring was concerned
r the administration of the funds collected after the North-
nest disaster, in which about 4(1 lives were lost; the case
nv, the Cospatrick, in which 200 persons perished by burning
42 he high seas; the North Sea Fisheries disaster, in which
lives were lost; and in the relief of the sufferers by the
~terkeuwell explosion. In all these cases the numerical
. 4°lll of the victims was much less than in the sinking of
0 Princess Alice.
„On Sunday evening Mr. Herring preached to a
efowded and attentive congregation at St. Paul's,
,erkenwell, which included several relatives and friends
()1 the survivors. Long before the hour announced for
43!, ning the service the church was crowded to excess,
,a many hundreds of persons were, in consequence,
' Znable to gain admittance. Taking for his text the words
Z°4l Revelations, "And the sea gave up the dead that were
, Ln it," he said be was rejoiced to have the privilege of
1 Xiniatering consolation to those who during the past nine
I .V 0 had been made sorrowful. There could no longer be
tali doubt that the ill-fated vessel which perished carried
human beings at the time of the accident. He had care-
, ;tuly examined the marks on all the corpses, and he found
. :alit in almost every instance an attempt had been made
grasp something—as a piece of timber, a bit of rope,
,t,., hat, or umbrella before the unfortunate indi-
n,"nal had sunk beneath the waters. Sixteen out of
..._'44 1110 that were saved were now no more, and many who
io2ol)ed were now in a most precarious condition, hovering be-
Zeen life and death. He reasoned from all that he had
' 7„11 that the sea had not yet given up all Its dead; and he
no hesitation in saying that 10 more lives might be
' pded to the list of the lost. He calculated that on that
i atm night' when the vessel stood within sight of home,
ti
1 4ea
i lb. claimed for itself no less than 788 victims. The
' °uir and skilful swimmer peiisb-ed side by side with
ore who knew nothing of the art. A very few
" ta lin to shore; shrieks, mingled with the cry of "Save
; :I" resounded on all sides, while some were heard to
1 Itl'et gold to be delivered from the waters.—After &flu-
; 41114 to the rescue of an American young lady (since dead,
the inquest on whose body we give below), and the death
her lover, whose last words were—' Darling, good-bye I
shall meet in Heaven I" the rev. gentlen an proceed( d
: relate another incident, whi h he said had only just
1
I:,tne to light, and which served to throw some ligbt on the
e, kin of the gallant captain of the vessel. A young girl, after
! Wi.sing, rose to the surface. Near where she was floating
, n plank which sustained her for half an hour in the
. Step. She was greatly knocked about, and now lies
terrible state. She reports having seen Captain
! instead a few yards of. He, perceiving ber des-
, Dersie position, cried out, "For God's sake lay hold
,01 that plank l" He made no effoit to seize it him-
and the waters immediately closed over his
bad. He believed that the silent prayer, uttered in the
tter anguish of the drowning, had reached the Throne of
1,,,111ne, and was answered. On board the Heron he saw 87
7gles lying together, and around was property amounting
ralue to £4OO. That, he thought, spoke eloquently for
tie honesty of those poor men who were compelled to earn
ir daily bread by finding the bodies of those who had gone
the deep. He should never forget the multitude of per-
-48 who stood on the shore the following morning strain-
their eyes to catch a glimpse of some beloved relation or
;'ethl. If ever there was weeping and lamentation on this
th it was on that day at Woolwich. He felt that the
''tikis of the public were greatly due to the members of the
...` rens,who with such aptitude described the marks and appear-
ofra the bodies, and thus promoted the work of indeuti-
,ction. Only 30 out of the 640 bodies recovered remained
, `Lnrecognised. During the week £260 had, at his sug-
-1 Dation, and with the kind sanction of the Lord
1 7Yor, been distributed to those persons who stood in need
4s, assistance, and by to•mwrow £4OO would have gone in
"tat direction. The rev, gentleman then narrated the history
iltnany families who have been reduced to utter dental'.
°0 by the calamity. Within a stone's throw of where they
~,ete now assembled the members of a Bible-class, to the
u';'4naber of 31, were on board, and out of those there
OM only four survivors. Nor had the bodies of more
tilln 12 out of those 27 persons been yet found. At
ik! altar of that very church a young couple were ny.rried
Morning of the catastrophe, who were destined before
Oht to find a watery grave. There were, he felt, 130 more
h2clies which the sea had not yet given up, for many must
e been taken out to sea by the ebb tide that was then
Wing, In conclusion, the rev, gentleman dwelt on theClictis aspect of the occurrence, impressing upon his
..!nrera the necessity of leading a good life, so as to be ready
Iv Meet death.

benefit performance at Aatley's Theatre on Saturday
ild of the Princess Alice Relief Fund resulted, as we are
(porrned, in an addition of more than £6O to the fund The
vrattau children gave scenes from Richard 111., and Miss
izilrginia Blackwood delivered with much feeling an address
thYined heroic metre written by Mr. Walter Simms. The
Oruber of the dead mentioned in the verses is 600. It will
re been seen that this is no poetical exaggeration, but less
tr,/,1 than the number of the bodies reported by the police
" 'lave been recovered.

AA Westminster Abbey, the Rev. Edwin Price and Canon
ckworth preached on Sunday on behalf of the sufferers.
ue collections at the two services amounted to £.83.

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, which was filled in every
at and inch of standing ground, and in which groups of
Dle bereaved by the disaster to the Princess Alice could
seen dressed in deep mourning, Mr. Spurgeon, in his open.
Prayer, asked the Almighty to bring to the minds of the
~Diabitants of this great city the true lesson taught by the
VPrecedented catastrophe which had occurred on the river
:sarnes, and to succour in His mercy the widows, the orphans,
.ed the others who by this sad accident—this remarkable,
,112,6hing, and overwhelmirgcaamity—been deprived of their
Zwiral protectors. Mr. Spugeon said that the blow had fallen
geavily upon the members of the Tabernacle congregation.
1,0111 Sunday evenivg Cardinal Manning preached in St.
o -b-argarat's Church, Barking-road, Canning-town. Two sisters
this congregation, who were in the habit of teaching in the
Atiday-school, were drowned by the sinking of the Princess
tluce. Cardinal Manning said it was only the Sunday before
eir death that the two sisters had knelt at the altar to
sfteive the holy communion, and on that same day they were
:fain in the church teaching the young the catechism. In
e very hour of their death they were bearing in their hands
m...°Wers with which to deck the altars of the church—a loving
isluering that showed the tender devotion of their youthful
0,04. To those sorrowing hearts which grieved for them
° wbbuld recall Christ's words—" In my Father's house there
:,te twiny mansions," and also that He only went before to
eceive those who loved him.
At Loudon-bridge, on the Middlesex side, a box for contri-
ulltions has been set up, and a large placard reminds the
Niers-by that 80,000 persons pass London-bridge daily, and
41,4 if each were to give only a penny to the Princess Alice
sion House Fund the sum contributed would amount to
Ali° a day, or £1,500 in the six days of the week. It was
lloticed on Saturday that very few people indeed passed the
'°Z Without depositing a coin in it.

i.. 0 1) to Sunday night the number of bodies recovered
L'as 630; but it is considered probable that several
°tore will yet be brought in from the neighbourhood
°I the wreck, and others may be discovered floating
ottt to sea. It is calculated, judging from the number
t()„,1 Persons still missing, that the total loss will be fully