Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-09-11

Il
and sunk with such frightf1l results
tlaat evening by the collier "By Wei
tCAstle, Twas one of the largest sAlooI
steamers of the London stesmboa
COMPANY. The Princess Alice lefl
Gravescnd for London soon after sis
o'clock in the evening, and had ar.
irived within sight of the royal arsen-
81 al. WoOlwich,f at about 8 O'Clock
The by Well Castle" was then ap.
lproaching on the opposite course, and
the two steamers were near the mid.
die of the stream Just of the city oi
LONDON gas works, at Becktbu; almost
the precise spot;where fatal collision
occurred between, the Meteor and
Wentworth ten years ago. What
happened is impossible accurately
to DETAIL All that is known, amid
the mAdd sning excitement, is that the
screw steamer struck the Princes
Alice on the port side near the fort
ward stanchions. A sceno which has.
had no parallel on the river ensued
A very few persons clambered on to
the other vessel, but nearly all rushed
10 the after part of the Princess Alice
As the bow subsided gradually under
water the shricks were fearful, and
nothing could be done to save life,
There were, q dozen or more life
buoys on board, and some boats were
swinging in the dsvits, but even If
they could have been got at they
would have been Of little service un-
der the circumstances. Within, five
minutes the Princess Alice keeled
completely over and went down in
deep water. Some small boats hast,
ened to the scene, and the Duke OF
lTeck, another steamer, belonging to
the same company, which was also on
q passage up the river with party OF
excursi0nists, went to the rescue. but
the river for a hundred yards was
full Of drowning people, screaming in
anguish, and praying for help; and as
il was growing dark then, not much
could be done. 1t is believed that
not more than $50 persons escaped
out of 800 aboard the vessel. The
Princess Alice was q long and low
river steamer, built for excursions
down the Thames, of which the mid
die and poorer classes of Londoners
were very fond. She had saloons on
forward and after decks, and her pas
senger carrying capacity was unu-
snally large. A large proportion of
her passengers last evening were on
the upper or saloon deck, and must
have seen beforehand their impending
doom, but those in the saloon Of the
steamer had no warning until they
heard the crash, and found tho pas
sengers frofn the forward part of the
vessel running to the after part. Be-
yond the fact that the tide was at
about two hours ebb, which would
enable the Princess Alice to ease and
stop sooner than the screw steamer,
which would be borne on the tide, it
is impossible 10 discover any of the
circumstances immediately preceding
the collision. Before the boats came
IN collision there were cries from one
70 the other to keep out of the way,
but a. usual In such cases The accident
was probably y due to a misunderstood :
ing. se5 h,o .a g,e tae 5as
LONDON, Sept. 1.-The cause of the
Princess Alice disaster is believed to
be that both vessels were rounding q
sharp bend in the river, caused by q
sprojectionrof point of land where
one of the powder magazines of the
Woolwich arsenal is situated. In or
der to turn this point Princess Alice
had crossed over to the right bank of
the river, and was thus out of her
proper course. Her lights were prob
ably obscured by the shadow Of the
powder magazine, and being much
smaller and lower than the by Well
CASTLE the latter was upon. her be-
fore the danger was perceived.
LONDON, Sept. 5.-Thc following is
the log of the steamer BywcM Castle,
which run down the excursion steam
or, Princess Alice, on the Thames,
Tuesday evening: The master and
pilot were on the upper bridge and
the lookout on the topgallant FORE
castle. Light airs prevailed and the
weather was little hazy at I :45 D. m.
Proceeded at half speed down Gal
Icons beach; when at center Of the
reach observed an excursion steamer
coming up Barking reaching showing
her red and masthead lights, when
We ported cur helm to keep over to-
wards Tripcock Point. As the ves-
sci neared observed that the other
steamer had ported her holm. I'm
mediately after wards saw thar she
had star6oarded her helm and was
trying to cross our bows. sho wing her
green light close under our port bow.
Seeing that q collision was inevita BILE
We stopped our engines and revers-
ed them. Al faIl sneed the two vas.
sells came in collision, the bow OF the
Bywell Castle cutting into the steam.