The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-09-04
BEYOND THE BLUE SEA.
Steamer Run Down.
OVER FIVE HUNDRED LIVES LOST.

National Associated Press to the STAT
LONDON, Sept 4.-The excursion steamer
Princess Alice, returning from Gravesend
last evening about 8 o'clock, was struck
amidships by screw collier, the Bywell
Castle, and run down off Barking and
nearly all her passengers, estimated at fully
five hundred people, many of whom were
women and children, were drowned The
captain and most of the crew are among the
lost. Several of the survivors speak Of hav
ing lost as many as three, five and six chill
dren. They describe the water as covered !
with hundreds of shrieking people.
All the police of Woolwich Town and
Arsenal were engaged last night labelling |
corpses chiefly women and children, which |
completely fill the board-room at the Steam |
boat Company's offices at Woolwich.
A passenger who scrambled on board the
Bywell Castle says she threw ropes to the
people struggling in the water.
The Princess Alice was paddle-wheel
steamer, with raised saloon. Her gross ton
mage was 251 and that of the Bywell Castle
1,736.
LONDON, Sept 4.-The scene of the sink
ing of the Princess Alice was directly off
Barking, twenty miles below London
bridge. The river is wide but the channel
taken by the steamer is rather narrow, and
the stream is often, as it was on this occa-
sion, crowded with vessels. The tide runs
with great force and often requires much
skill to keep the vessel in its proper course.
The shore on the Greenwood side of the
river is generally thickly lined with boats
belonging to fishermen, watermen, &C., and
it was altogether owing to the promptness
with which these boats fastened to the
scene of the accident that any lives were
! saved
The Princess Alice, although very swift
and handsome, was nota particularly strong
vessel, but the force of the collision was
sufficient to cut in two much stronger
craft She was heading up the river but
going rather towards the Middlesex shore,
and the other steamer was coming down
with full head of steam, but going at half
speed.
LONDON, Sept. 4.-The nation is completely
stunned by the awful calamity on the
Thames. The saved number only about
one hundred. So much confusion prevails,
hewever, that the exact number can not be
ascerained. 1t is feared that the drowned
will number six hundred.
The victims are from every district in
London and of very respectable class. The
dead are being taken to Woolwich as fast as
they are recovered, and are arranged in the
public offices there to await identification
by their friends and a Coroners inquest.
Every train from London this morning
brought down hundreds of people, and
Woolwich is now filled with an immense
mob of weeping and excited men and
women who have come to identify their
drowned friends and relatives.
The scenesare painful and narrowing in
the extreme. The crowds of excited people
have great difficulty in preserving order.
The river police, assisted by volunteers, are
engaged in dragging the river, and every mo-
ment corpse is found. The bodies are
generally not at all disfigured, and death
does not seem to have been painful. The
Board of Trade has ordered an inquiry to
be instituted and this will take place i'm
mediately. The 'Bywell Castle" the screw
collier which caused the disaster has been
detained.
The pilot, master and officers are to be
taken before the Board of Trade Commits
!, sioners this afternoon. The official declara-
tion Of the captain of the Bywell Castle
says the collision was due to the Alice star
boarding instead of porting 1t appears
now that the Alices mate, Swami, was
ashore at the time of the disaster.
LONDON, Sept. 4.-The Queen has tele-
graphed her sympathy to those afflicted by
the loss of relatives and friends by the dis
aster to the Princess Alice.
RESULT OF ELECTIONS IN GERMANY.
LONDON, Sept. A dispatch from Berlin
says that the supplementary elections are
now all over that of Count William Bis.
marck being the last. The total result is
that the Ultramontanes have gained six
Liberals have lost twenty-nine, the Pro-
gressists thirteen, and the Social Democrats
four. The latter have now eight members.
The other parties have suffered no loss and
made no gain.
THE RUSSIANS WILL ENTER BATOUM.
LONDON, Sept A dispatch from Con.
stantinople says the Russians will enter
Batoum on Friday The chiefs of the Lazis
ton will be made to the Russian occupa,
ton of Batoum.
BRITISH FLEET TO WITHDRAW.
The British fleet in the Sea of Marmora
will shortly withdraw to near the Straits Of
Dardanelles.