Disaster on the Thames

September 3, 1878 - It was on this night that the SS Princess Alice, a fully-loaded passenger steamship, collided with the Bywell Castle, a cargo ship hauling coal. The two ships slammed into each at a point along the Thames River known as Gallions Reach. The steamship was split in half and quickly sank. No record was kept of the passenger count, but estimates are that as many as 700 people drowned.

To make matters even more horrific, the water in this section of the Thames was heavily polluted with a recent discharge of 75 million imperial gallons of raw sewage. Many of the women who plunged into the cesspool were dragged down by their heavy dresses which made it almost impossible to swim. A diver involved in the salvage operation reported finding corpses jammed upright in the doorways of the ship’s saloon.

Approximately 130 people were rescued, but some of them later died after ingesting the toxic river water.

Here’s a chemist’s description of the sewage flowing into the Thames:

Two continuous columns of decomposed fermenting sewage, hissing like soda-water with baneful gases, so black that the water is stained for miles and discharging a corrupt charnel-house odour, that will be remembered by all ... as being particularly depressing and sickening.

As a result of the disaster, new sewage methods of sewage treatment and disposal were eventually implemented. In addition, new protocols were established for separating heavier and lighter boats to avoid these types of accidents.