While not strictly a Clyde matter, the wreck of the Princess Alice on the Thames involved a steamer that was built on the Clyde and served on the Clyde before she was sold to owners on the Thames. The steamers Kyles and Bute were built for the Wemyss Bay Railway and Steamboat Co., by Caird & Co., in 1865. A third sister, the first to leave the ways in 1864, had been purchased by the Confederate States to run the blockade, named Hattie. The Kyles and Bute were almost 220 ft long and over 20 ft in breadth and had narrow deck saloons with alleyways around them. They were a great improvement on the other ship, the Largs, of the Wemyss Bay Company and indeed, with the exception of the new Iona and the Chancellor, there were few other saloon steamers on the Firth.

Bute (McQueen)

The Wemyss Bay Company provided service to Rothesay and Millport from Wemyss Bay in connection with their trains but it was very badly managed.  Instead of enhancing the ferry service, they used the new saloon steamers to expand their business with a service to Ardrishaig in competition with Messrs. Hutchinson, and to undertake charters. Financial problems followed and the two new steamers were withdrawn and sold. Further details of the Wemyss Bay Company will be subject of a future contribution.

Both Bute and Kyles were sold in 1866 to the Waterman’s Steam Packet Co., of London for service on the Thames where a saloon steamer, the Alexandra, had appeared the previous year.

Alexandra

The Alexandra was built as a speculative hull to run the blockade for the Confederates, but the conflict across the Atlantic was coming to a conclusion as she was being built and she was finished, again on speculation, for the Clyde river traffic.

“Launch.—There was a launch yesterday from the building yard of Messrs Kirkpatrick, M‘Intyre & Co., Port Glasgow, a finely modeled saloon river steamer, intended for the passenger trade of the river Clyde. Her principal dimensions are—length, 240 feet; breadth, 22 feet 3 inches, depth, 9 feet; saloon cabin, 60 feet by 15 feet; ladies cabin aft of saloon, 13 feet by 11 feet. In the lower cabin there is dining accommodation for 160 passengers, with steward’s bar, dressing rooms, and other conveniences. There is also a promenade on the deck of the saloon fore and aft, 174 feet long. In the steerage department the saloon is 35 feet long, besides a lower saloon, having dining accommodation for 130 passengers, with steward’s room and bar, clerk’s room, and a steerage 24 feet in length. This steamer was put on for a deep sea purpose, and is therefore strongly built, and with her excellent and commodious saloon and cabin accommodation, it is anticipated that she will receive a large share of the summer traffic on the Clyde. She is to be engined by Messrs Wm. Smith & Co., Clyde Foundry, Greenock, with diagonal oscillating engines of 140 horse-power nominal, and is expected to attain a high rate of speed. The vessel was named Alexandra by Miss Theodosia G. W. Boyd, St Vincent Street, Glasgow. We understand that she is the property of the builders and engineers, and that if she is not sold she will be ready to take her place on the Glasgow and Rothesay station in four or five weeks.” Greenock Telegraph April 13, 1865

Within a few weeks, it was apparent that the new owners would be the Saloon Steam Packet Co., of London and that she would run as the first saloon steamer on the Thames.

“Steamer Alexandra.—This craft was yesterday taken up to Port Glasgow, where she will be finished in hull and cabin by her builders, Messrs Kirkpatrick, M‘Intyre & Co. Her engines and boilers were put on board while she lay in Victoria Harbour, by Messrs Smith & Co., and it is expected she will be ready to proceed to the Thames in less than a month.” Greenock Telegraph May 19, 1865

The Alexandra had some hiccups with her engines during trials but left the Clyde in June 1865.

“The Saloon Steamer Alexandra.—This steamer was to have gone on her trial trip yesterday, but owing to something having gone wrong with her engines, the arrangement had to be departed from.” Greenock Telegraph June 01, 1865.

“Trial Trip.—On Friday night the steamer Alexandra went down the river on her trial trip. On the downward trip her engines heated very much and had to be stopped twice, but on the upward run the bearings kept cooler and the distance between the lights was run in 49 minutes. The directors of the company to which the Alexandra belongs were on board, and expressed themselves as highly satisfied with the speed she attained. This afternoon she is to proceed to London, and will be put on her station at the end of the week.” Greenock Telegraph June 13, 1865.

“Steamer Alexandra.—Yesterday this steamer left the Clyde for the Thames, where she will, beyond doubt, sustain the fame of the Clyde for fast and elegant steamers. On passing down the river yesterday she encountered one of the crack steamers, and in a short time showed that she, although deeply laden with coals, was the superior for speed. The builders of the Alexandra have been singularly successful for building fast steamers, and although quite a young firm they have already made for themselves a name equal to that enjoyed by the oldest builders on the Clyde.” Greenock Telegraph June 15, 1865.

It was in 1867, that the Kyles and Bute made their way to the Thames for the Waterman’s Steam Packet Co., as rivals to the Alexandra. There is a painting by Josiah Taylor of the Kyles in 1867 entitled “The arrival at Erith of the winning spritsail barge.” It commemorates the fifth of these races on the Thames.

(artnet.com)

The ships were popular and in 1870, were taken over by the Woolwich Steam Packet Co.  At this time Kyles was renamed Albert Edward, and the Bute was renamed Princess Alice.  In 1876, the London Steamboat Company took over.

Princess Alice and Bywell Castle (Pamlin)

On September 3, 1878 the Princess Alice sailed on an excursion from London Bridge to Sheerness. Returning in the evening, she called at Rosherville Pier and then proceeded up the Thames to Woolwich on an ebb tide.  At Gallions Reach, she was run down by the collier Bywell Castle and Princess Alice broke in two.

The bow of the Princess Alice

The stern of the Princess Alice

In less than five minutes she had sunk and over 700 souls were lost.  Gavin Thurston’s book, “The Great Thames Disaster,” George Allen and Unwin, London, 1965, gives the most detailed account. The disaster gave rise to a great increase in spirituality in the following years as mourning families sought to use seances to contact relatives lost that day.

Albert Edward, the sister of Princess Alice, leaving Rosherville Pier 

The sister of Princess Alice, Albert Edward, was taken over by the London Steamboat Company in 1884 but in 1887, they went bankrupt and Albert Edward was broken up the following year.

The following tract is entitled “The Wreck of the ‘Princess Alice‘ ” and is a contemporary publication of the Monthly Tract Society and was aimed to comfort the spiritually distressed.  It gives a good idea of the feelings of the times.

“No holiday season of recent times has ended in deeper gloom, on account of the overwhelming disasters which have marked its close, than the season of 1878. Some were fondly hoping that although the summer had been disappointing to many excursionists so far as the weather was concerned, it nevertheless might be cheerfully referred to as being more than usually exempt from calamities only too well known in connection with trips by rail and river. The hope, however, was short-lived, for as if in mockery of any such expectation there came, in rapid succession, dreadful catastrophes, the second more appalling than the first, and speaking with a voice that echoed far over all the land, and making itself heard in every circle of society, saying, “Be ye also ready, for in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.”

“The terrible collision between a cheap fast train from Ramsgate and some trucks at Sittingbourne, which resulted in a long list of killed and wounded, was followed by the disaster on the Thames, which in the grief and anxiety it has excited may be almost said to be without a parallel. This has been quickly succeeded by the colliery explosion at Abercarne, which may be said to have plunged thousands into mourning. In the path of pleasure, as well as in that of industry, the angel of death suddenly appeared with drawn sword, and “there was no discharge in that war.” The fields which had been resounding with the joyous songs of harvest were filled with the voice of lamentation, because the light of many a home had been suddenly quenched, and the breadwinner would go forth to his work no more for ever.

“We shall assuredly be most unwise if we allow such events to pass by without seeking to turn them to some spiritual account. The loss of the Princess Alice has already formed the text of searching and solemn appeals in most of the pulpits of the land, and it is prayerfully hoped that impressions have been produced which will not prove fleeting as the morning cloud and early dew, but lasting nd true, as nails fastened in a sure place.

“This tract is issued in the earnest hope that while the calamity is fresh in the recollection of all it may lead to the solemn question, if I had been on board that vessel when in a moment a scene of pleasure became one of despair and horror, if I had found myself suddenly struggling with the waves, and at last sinking, to rise no more, whither would my soul have gone?

“The scene on board the Princess Alice on Tuesday, September 3rd, presented in the various classes and characters assembled a fair epitome of human life. The rich and poor, young and old, the believing and the careless, were there side by side. The day had been a pleasant holiday to many poor people, some of whom were known to be believers in Jesus. It is the one glimpse of light in the awful darkness of the picture to know that there were some who were ready to meet their Lord, and who passed through the drowning flood into the sweet haven on the other side. It would not be wise to refer to names, but the consoling fact ought not to be lost sight of that there were some on that steamer to whom the day had been specially pleasant because they had been accompanied by and were now returning with their Lord. Some, however, judging from the reports published, were on that doomed vessel without Christ, and when the final hour came what must have been their thoughts! If it be generally true, as those who have narrowly escaped death by drowning have repeatedly told us, that in one brief moment they seemed to live years, and to have the complete story of their lives flashing before them with a vividness which they had never before realized, what was the retrospect which many were compelled to take in that awful hour!

“The darkness of evening was deepening as the Princess Alice, on her return trip from Sheerness, arrived opposite Woolwich. Some were chatting over the incidents of the day, or listening to the music of the band on board, or looking at objects of interest on the river or on the banks on either side of them. Some were below, keeping the steward employed in supplying their orders. And it is perhaps permissible to say that the thought farthest from every mind at the time was that they were drawing nearer and nearer every moment to an appalling catastrophe, by which more than five hundred lives would be lost. So, however, it proved on this calm September evening.

“Singularly enough, they had nearly reached the exact spot where, about ten years ago, a fearful collision took place, when a large iron screw collier, the Bywell Castle, suddenly came into view. It was now about a quarter to eight in the evening, and the last glimmer of the daylight had slowly died away. The tide was running strongly, and in favour of the collier, which came swooping down mid-stream with all the swing of a vessel of more than one thousand tons. The first intimation of any danger which the passengers received was when they saw their captain wildly throwing up his arms, as if he saw inevitable destruction close upon him. In tones of despair he shouted to the advancing collier; but even if those on board the Bywell Castle heard his cry, the speed at which she was coming down stream prevented another course being instantaneously taken, and in a few moments the ponderous vessel had struck the Princess Alice so tremendous a blow that in less than five minutes irreparable mischief had been done.

“The scene which followed defies description, for death has seldom assumed a more appalling shape. The river resounded with wild shrieks of human agony, and fathers, mothers, lovers, and little children were speedily engulfed in the waters of death. Survivors have said, and they may be readily believed, that were they to live a hundred years they would never forget the maddening excitement which followed the vessel being struck nearly in halves, and when hundreds were seen struggling for rescue and grasping at anything, however frail, that seemed to promise some faint chance of escape. For at least a hundred yards the river was full of drowning passengers, screaming madly for help, and then came the silence, which was more awful even than the wildest shrieking, for it told that all was over.

“The unexpectedness of this calamity should surely be our first and chief lesson. It is one that is taught perhaps more frequently and more convincingly than any other in connection with all catastrophes, and yet how few learn it! We admit the uncertainty of life, of course, in a general way, but we may not have realized its truth so far as we individually are concerned. We have heard it again and again, and we do not think of disputing it; but perhaps if we were secretly to analyse our own thoughts respecting it we should be found almost unconsciously applying our knowledge of life’s uncertainty to other lives than our own. It is one of those general beliefs of ours to which we have grown so well accustomed that we might as well be without it for any influence it exerts over heart and character.

“It would almost seem that it is only when some awful catastrophe occurs, like that now under review, that we awake to the fact that in the morning we flourish and grow up, and in the evening are cut down and withered. We can well imagine the smile of incredulity which would have flitted over the face of many a passenger on the morning of the day which brought death to hundreds had he been told, “You will never see home again. You have taken your ticket for your last journey. Soon after sundown this evening, your soul will be required, time will be exchanged for eternity, and you will have looked your last on all things earthly.”

“The words by some might have been deemed as fit only to be spoken by an intrusive fanatic, and they probably would have been thought impertinent. But louder than any human voice could utter them the words were spoken, and souls passed to the judgment, to give an account of the deeds done in the body. Those who were reckoning on long years of life before them, who were making their plans for the future, who were contemplating marriage, who were thinking of the business they had just bought and how they would improve it, in one dread moment found plans and hopes all vain and illusory, and the only thing real close and inevitable—death.

“It will be sad if with such a voice sounding in our ears we shall still think death certain to all but ourselves. The most shocking calamities after a time lose somewhat of the horror at first attaching to them by our becoming familiar with the details; but it will be to our eternal loss if we think lightly of the appeal which this disaster makes to the conscience of all those who were saved, and of all who have read the mournful story. “Be ye also ready” is its dear exhortation to all. The morning may open brightly, and everything around may give promise of a fair and happy day. You may be saying, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for thee. Take thine ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.” But in an hour that ye think not the Son of Man cometh.

“Does not this calamity also teach a solemn lesson to those who may be deferring the great work of the salvation of the soul until a convenient season, or even a dying hour? Was it, let any candid reader answer, “a convenient season” in which to think of the eternal interests of the soul when the Princess Alice was struck as if by an ironclad, and when in a moment hundreds were fighting for dear life in the water? We may hope that from many of the drowning the cry for mercy went up to God, but is it to an hour of agony like this that we would put off answering the question, Am I safe for eternity? The time of illness has been, again and again, seen to be most unfavourable either for the imparting or receiving spiritual instruction. The wants and ailments of the body then absorb all attention, and it has been a work of no ordinary difficulty frequently to direct the minds of sufferers to religious subjects. If such be the fact in the quiet death chamber, where all excitement is repressed so far as possible, can we not see how little time for reflection there would be amidst all the keen agonies of that scene on the river?

” “I laid hold of a piece of wood,” said a survivor; “I was afraid every moment some of the poor people would snatch it from me, for I was surrounded by hundreds, men, women, and children, struggling for life, and shrieking in their agony.” “I immediately launched a boat,” said another, “but was nearly swamped by the crowds who, shrieking and drowning, made a last struggle for life, and it was necessary to quench their hopes by knocking them off the sides with the oars.” “I never shall forget the scene,” said a third; “the whole river seemed alive with heads! Some people were holding on to forms, others to chairs and pieces of wood. One gentleman came close to me. He was like a madman, and could not be quiet. And another cried out; ‘Twenty pounds to save my life!’ ”

“These instances, out of many, will suffice to show that the absorbing thought of the moment was the salvation or the body rather than of the soul, and the fact may serve to remind those who are still undecided that the time which they may consider to be best suited for religious decision may prove to be one in which they will hardly devote a thought to it. It is not by the fear of death and what may follow it in the case of the unbelieving that God would draw us to Himself. He would win us by His love, His gentleness and goodness, His long-suffering and tender mercy, and those who are waiting for any startling providence to lead them to Christ may never have it, or may find it to be one resulting in their death. Calamities, however terrible, gradually become less appalling as we think of them days and weeks afterwards, and even those who were the most shocked by them at the time find themselves thinking of them without a shudder. Even relatives and friends and those whose loss will be lifelong can have their sorrow without the repentance in which it should have resulted. This tract may be read by some of these. Will they not admit the truth of these words? Will they permit the question, While sorrowing for the death of those dear to you, have you truly sorrowed for your sins, and by faith in the all-sufficient merits of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for you, found the peace which the world cannot give, and which the certainty of death cannot take away?

“If you have been waiting for some startling event, some alarming dispensation of Providence, before making the resolve to be the Lord’s, can any call be more solemn than that which has now been addressed to you? Perhaps the reader may have been one of those on board the Princess Alice on that fatal day, when so many were hurried into eternity! While many were taken, dear reader, you were left. For the moment, in the wild despair that was so general and so heart-rending, you may have thought your last hour was come, and that in a few moments you would be before your Judge. Throughout your entire history, you were never in circumstances more perilous or more alarming. If you had never prayed for mercy before, some agonising supplication may have then escaped you as you saw the vessel sinking, and in a moment more found yourself struggling in the waves! Could any incident that you had ever heard, that you had ever read or dreamt of, have been more dismaying than this one in your own life?

“What has been the result? Do you regard your rescue from a watery grave simply in the light of “a lucky escape”? Can, you tell the story of the day to others, and describe your feelings while expecting every moment to be your last, without ascribing your safety to the tender mercy of Him who has given you longer space for repentance? It is possible that any feeling of alarm which was then excited may have now subsided, that the most stirring voice which could have sounded in your ears has now sunk into silence, and has left no impression upon a thoughtless heart. This is possible but shall it be so? Let not the heart be hardened by the very mercy which God has shown, but let it lead to the full surrender of yourself to Him, through faith in Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that the life He has so mercifully spared may be truly His for evermore.

“It is faith in Jesus which sheds the only comforting light on that dark scene on the river. While terror was the order of the hour, and the passengers were despairingly clinging to any mode of escape, there were some who were calm amidst the general excitement. Throughout the day there had been two kinds of singing on board, and a portion of the passengers at least had joined in melody unto their Lord. Some of these, when the calamity fell upon the vessel, were engaged in a song of praise, and they did not cease singing until they went down. Some natural fear they may have had, but they knew in whom they had believed, and their trust did not waver now when they most needed its support. They could leave all in the Lord’s hands. If it was His will that they should be called to meet Him by this mode of departure they would bow submissively to it, and go down into the deep nothing doubting that there was the Father’s house on the other side.

“We frequently read and hear of the supporting power of faith in Christ in the direst extremity, and here was another instance of it. Some of those on board were well-known believers, and they had been spending their brief holiday in a way which they could not regret. There is no need far any effort to show that they exhibited any special heroism or superhuman courage when they found the vessel in which they were sailing homewards suddenly cut in halves. It is enough to know that they were calm in the presence of the impending catastrophe, and that some of them went into the deep with the praises of God upon their lips. Affecting though the picture may be, who would not rather think of it than of the terror which others exhibited as they found themselves face to face with death?

“Some of the farewells of friends to each other on that night of sorrow were melancholy indeed, and we need all the hope which faith in Christ inspires to enable us to contemplate them calmly. “Good-bye, dearest; we shall meet in heaven,” we hear a well-known promoter of temperance say to the lady to whom he was soon to be married, and in this world the lovers met no more. Who, too, without a feeling of tender pity can think of the total loss of that little Bible party who, from the crowded courts and alleys of London, had gone out for a day’s fresh air with the benevolent Christian lady who for so many years had done her utmost for their temporal and spiritual welfare? The Bible Class consisted of a number of elderly women, who met every week for religious instruction, and conversation. Their kind superintendent had determined to give them a pleasant day, far from the narrow courts and alleys in which their lives were usually spent, and a party of thirty was made up, the ages of the poor women varying from forty-five to sixty-five. They had been very happy, we are told, and were going home full of gratitude to their friend. Just before the collision they had been all standing together, but in a moment all were precipitated into the river.

“While the mournful story will awaken the regret and kindly sympathy of all who will read it, if it does not lead the undecided to the Saviour it will not teach its chief lesson. We may be congratulating ourselves that we never risk our lives by joining parties of pleasure on the river, or by travelling by excursion trains. We may be secretly saying, If those who went that day by the Princess Alice had followed our plan, they would have been even as we are to-day—well and strong, preserved to their families, and going about their usual work. We may be thinking that all the sorrow connected with the calamity might have been avoided if a little of the prudence which we ourselves always display had been called into exercise. Many are thinking and talking after this fashion to-day.

“But can you, with all the prudence you display, for which certainly no one will blame you—can you safely build on to-morrow? Has it been given to you to know what even a day may bring forth? You may escape accident, but are you possessed of any secret charm by which to stave off sudden illness, or equally sudden death? Are you sure when you leave home in the morning for your daily engagements that you will as usual return to your family in the evening? He would be a bold man indeed, and as foolish as bold, who would confidently answer, “Yes!” to these queries. “Therefore be ye also ready.” That voice has sounded in your ears many times. It sounds once more, and see that you refuse not Him that speaketh.

“Faith in Christ as your Saviour, your Prophet, Priest, and King, will give calmness and courage amidst all the unexpected calamities of life. Day by day, whatever may be the scene in which you may be found, you will know assuredly that there is nothing to fear. You are no longer your own, but the Lord’s, and your language will ever be, Let Him do as seemeth Him wise. Your life will be hid with Christ in God, and though accidents may be occurring around you, though the pestilence may walk in darkness, and destruction waste at noonday, faith in the love, the wisdom, and the almighty power of the Saviour you love will impart a quietness of spirit, a strength and courage which nothing can effectually disturb. The promise is, and it is sure, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee.”

“There were some lost in the wreck of the Princess Alice because those who tried to rescue them were unequal to the task. They put forth all their strength, but they failed, and were obliged to cast off those who were clinging to them. If they had not done this their own life would have paid the forfeit. Can we think of this without also thinking of Him who is mighty to save? His arm will never grow weary. He will lose none who simply cling by faith to Him. He has graciously pledged Himself to save those who believe in Him, and He has never disappointed the hope of any, and never will. He will save from sin and the fearful looking for of judgment to come. He will save from the power of sin by the gracious indwelling of His Holy Spirit. He will save from all the fears and anxieties connected with our pilgrimage here below. He will save from the bitterness of death, as He sweetly assures every believer that it is but the messenger to call him home to the holy and happy world where sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

 

THE MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY.

LONDON: JOHN STABB, 5, NEW BRIDGE STREET, E.C.

NEW YORK: J. S. DAMMAST, BIBLE HOUSE, 72.

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