1 note

1 note

1 note

As she returns to London from Southend; the Thames river boat Princess Alice is rammed by the Bywell Castle. The Captain tries to save the vessel but she sinks and six hundred passengers are drowned. The bodies are laid out in Woolwich. God’s is asked to help the bereaved.
1 note

The passengers leave home in expectation of a pleasurable excursion but hundreds are drowned. Many are bereaved. Sympathy is expressed by people from all social classes.
1 note

The Thames was highly polluted and was for all practical purposes an open sewer until the year this song was published (1865) when the new London sewer network was opened. Hungerford Pier - referred to in this song - was part of the embankment created by the construction of the new sewers.
1 note

The Palace is probably the Crystal Palace. The Palace Theatre in central London was not built when the song was published [i] nor was the Camberwell Palace of Varieties [ii]. Music Hall stars performed at the Crystal Palace at about the time this song was published. [iii] References: [i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_Theatre,_London [accessed 10Jul2019] [ii] http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Camberwell.htm [accessed 10Jul2019] [iii] http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/CrystalPalace.htm [accessed 10Jul2019]
1 note

The City Steam Packet company referred to by many as the citizen steamboat company was the first of two steamboat companies to carry the same name. The company leased piers at London Bridge, Adelphi, Blackfriars, Temple, Westminster, Vauxhall, Battersea Square, and Chelsea. All the boats carried the fleet name Citizen and an alphabetical suffix. Citizen A is shown below.

634CitizenA.png

Reference:
Dix, Frank L. Royal River Highway: A History of the passenger boats and services on the river Thames (London, David & Charles, 1985) p82

  1. [Note 634.4]
  2. [634Synopsis]
  3. [612Notation]
  4. [639Notation]

Page 94 of 128

Please publish modules in offcanvas position.