The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-09-12
Wreck Of the Princes Alice.
LONDON. Sentember 4 1s

| LONDON, september !, 1875.
The excursion steamer Princess Alice,
which was run into and sunk, with such
frightful results last evening, was one of
the largest saloon steamers of the Lon
don Steamboat Company. She left Lon
don at II o'clock yesterday morning for
| Gravesend and Sheerness, many excur.
sionists being induced by fine weather to
60 for holiday trip. The vessel left
Gravesend on her return journey soon
after six o'clock in the evening, and ar
rived within sight of the Royal Arsenal
at Woolwich about eight o'clock. The
Bywell Castle was then approaching on
the opposite course, and the two steamers
were near the middle of the sti cam, Just
off the city, almost the precise spot where
fatal collision occurred between the
Metis and Wentworth ten years ago.
What happened is impossible to detail;
all that is known amid the maddening
excitement is that the screw steamer
struck the Princess Alice on her port
side, near the fore sponsor. A scene
which has had no parallel on the river
ensued. A few, very few persons clam
bered on the other vessel, but nearly all
rushed to the after part of the Princess
Alice. AS the bow subsidized gradually
under water, shrieks were fearful, and
nothing could be done to save life.
There were dozen or more life buoys
on board, and some boats were swinging
in the davits, but even if they could have
been got at they would been of little ser.
vice under the circumstances. Within
five minutes the Princess Alice kneeled
completely over and went down in deep
water. Some small boats hastened to
the scene, and the Duke of Teck, another
steamer belonging to the same company,
which was also on its passage up the
river with party of excursonists, went
to the rescue, but the river for a hundred
yards was full of drowning people,
screaming in anguish, praying for help,
and as it was growing dark not much
could be done. 1t is believed not more
than one hundred and fifty persons es-
capped out of eight hundred aboard the
vessel.
The Princess Alice was long and low
river steamer, built for excursions down
the Thames, of which the. middle and
poorer classes of Londoners were very
fond. She had saloons on her forward
and after decks, and her passenger-carry-
ing capacity was unusually large. A
large proportion of her passengers last
evening we're on the upper or saloon
deck, and must have seen beforehand
their impending doom, but those in the
stern of the steamer had no warning un-
til they heard the crash, and found the
passengers from the forward part of the
vessel running to the afterpart. Beyond
the fact that the tide was about two
hours ebb, which would enable the Prin-
cess Alice to ease and stop sooner than
the screw steamer, which would be borne
on the tide, it is impossible to discover
any of the circumstances Immediately
preceding the collision. Before the
boats came into collision there were
cries from one to the other to keep out of
the way, but as usual in such cases, the
accident was probably due to misunder-
standing, the one misinterpreting the in
tention of the other. All the rules of
sailing were cast to the winds in the mo-
ment of peril, each taking-the wrong
course to avoid each others blunder.