Historedia
No locationEvent

RMS Royal Adelaide sinks in the English Channel

When
1850
Where
Tongue Sands north of Margate
Episodes
1

The paddle steamer RMS Royal Adelaide sank in the English Channel on 30 March 1850, resulting in the loss of all persons on board. Owned by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, the vessel was bound from Cork to London when it wrecked at Tongue Sands north of Margate.

Episodes

  1. 30 March 1850 · Tongue Sands north of MargateSinking at Tongue Sands

    The RMS Royal Adelaide was lost at Tongue Sands north of Margate on 30 March 1850, with all persons on board perishing.

Background and detail

Background. RMS Royal Adelaide was a paddle steamship operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, primarily running between London and Cork. Captained by John Batty, the ship departed Cork on 27 March 1850, carrying cargo and approximately 250 passengers. It touched off at Plymouth before continuing its journey toward London.

Discovery. News of the disaster reached London late on Sunday, 31 March 1850. A river pilot waiting for the ship encountered a Deal pilot, Charles Gillham, who reported seeing a vessel of similar description in distress the previous evening. This encounter prompted the initial awareness of the ship's loss.

People involved

  • John Batty · Captain (unresolved identity pending staged Person reconciliation)
  • Charles Gillham · Deal Pilot (new person candidate pending staged identity)

Sources

  1. RMS Royal Adelaide Wikipedia, revision of 2026-02-04

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.