Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Collision in the Thames Estuary

When
3 September 1878
Where
Thames estuary
Part of
Princess Alice collides with Bywell Castle on the Thames

The crowded pleasure steamer Princess Alice collided with the passenger and cargo ship Bywell Castle in the River Thames on 3 September 1878.

The collision occurred in the Thames estuary, resulting in the sinking of the pleasure boat. Over 640 people died in the disaster, which is recorded as one of the worst river disasters in England.

Sources

  1. River Thames Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04
  2. SS Princess Alice Wikipedia, revision of 2024-08-21

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.