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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 those who died has never been known. Built in Greenock, Scotland, in 1865, Princess Alice 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 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 m3) 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 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 it was transported to, and released into, 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. Background SS Princess Alice Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland, launched 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 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 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. SS Bywell Castle The collier SS Bywell Castle 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. 3 September 1878 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 lon.... Discover the Alice Castle popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alice Castle books.