THE PRINCESS ALICE CATASTROPHE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 69, 25 January 1879, Page 2

THE PRINCESS ALICE CATASTROPHE.

Mr. John Lesley, of Bradford, says:— " The boat was well filled, but not overloaded. The captain and crew, I believe perfectly sober. The baud played lively aim, tinging and dancing wore goiug on, and everything went pleasantly oncMßh until Woolwich was sighted,' when the Bywell Castlo wan seen bearing down On us, about :tOO yards distant. I was sitting on the starlioard rail on the upper deck forward, and from this position neither vossel appeared to alter its OOUTM in the least as they appiiioehod uncli other. Just baton the cutlbiim ocourred there was a good deal of sb.on.tlng ud ntg the passengers, who cotdd now pcreeivti

their perilous situation. When the crash came, the screw struck us just in front of the starboard paddle-box ; and /eeling certain that the vessel must sink, my first impulse was to throw otf my coat, and stand ready to spring into the water. However, looking up at the bow of the vessel that had done the mischief, I saw a loop of cable hanging over, and in the bope of reaching it, 1 tried to make my >ay to paddlo-boxes. The scono on the -• c was now one of the greatest confusion, the passengers rushing hither and thither frantic with terror. One woman caught hold of me, ami exclaimed, ' flood heavens, what shall 1 do t Save me!' 1 told jier 1 could not help her, and releasing myself with great difficulty from her grasp, 1 rushed U) the paddle-boxes just in timo to spring up and catch the • cable and climb by its aid on to the deek W of the Bywell Castle. The first thing 1 / put my foot upon was a'noil of rope, and I threw the end of it over the side and afterwards another part of the same rope. While doing this I saw the fore part of the doomed ship go down, and a fearful cry arose from the struggling mass of human beings in the water. The sight was terrible, and one that 1 shall never forget. The stern end of the boat soon followed, and then there was another

frightful Bcene, heartrending in tho extreme I rushed to the ship's boats and assisted in launching four, and getting into the last one myself with two of the crew, we pulled round to the boats of the Bywell Castle to search for survivors.''

Mr. Claude Hamilton Wiele, who escaped by swimming, states that the vessel seemed almost cut in two, and in a few

minutes to doublo up in the middle and sink. " The people rolled down the decks towards the opening ; it was so steep they could not stand." The Rev. T. 0. Gill was in the saloon cabin. " I had not been there many minutes,'' he says, " when I heard a grazing and a grinding, then a

sudden stop, and then a terrible crash of shivered and splintered timbers. I made my oscape from the cabin to the lower deck, and saw the great ram-like bows •of the huge iron-built ship towering above us high inaccessible as the walls of a lofty castle. A few of the more active wore climbing up the chains at the bows, •but the multitude was too great and the ■ascent too hard for any but a few. The shrieks and waitings and ejaculations of tho women and children were heartrcud-

ing, but the one voice that all wanted to

hear was mute. No word of counsel or direction came from the lips of those in command, and each of us in that crowd -of men, women, and children was left in that awful crisis to his own devices.

Though the bow of the big ship had cut into us like n knife into a match-box (as a sailor described it), and everything betokened our speedy destruction, I still shrank from the conclusion that nautical skill could be so grossly in fault as to consign to instant destruction and vast mass of living men and-woman, of girls of innocent and happy childhood, and so, despite of appearances, I did not leave the boat until I felt her sinking under me. I took to the water from what I believe,

in nautical terms, is called the after sponsou, where is the gangway, and immediately the vessel sank. The blow had

been so fatally dealt to our fragile craft that I think she went down in about two minute") after she was struck. JSefore

leaving the boat 1 took off my coat and

overcoat, and the swimming faculty which I had practised as a boy, but which had been disused for years, did not desert

■me now, and to this, and the precaution •of taking ofl'iny coats, 1 attribute, under

God, my preservation. I swam among ■a crowd of swimmers and stragglers until I was picked up by a boat from the Bailing shore. We were not full, and so

we rowed back over the grave of the illfated vessel, picking up here and there a sinking fellow-passenger. Among our number, nest to me in the boat, was a •charming little boy, about three or four, who had been separated from his mother, who was lost, and from his three sisters "who were lost." Charles Hundley, the •captain of a barge near by, was in the first boat that went to the rescue. He thus describes the scene on the water : " I was with my barge at Beckto,when I heard dreudful screaming the blowing of whistles, and cries for help, and on looking down the river I saw that a collision had occurred. There was a regular tearing crash. Instantly I took my boot and my mate and I rowed to the spots 1 never shall forget the sight I saw. The whole river

seemed alivo with heads and hair. It looked like a river full of cocoanuts iSome people were holding on to forms, others to chairs and pieces of wood. A stout gentleman came close to mo, and I grabbed at him at once, but he was so heavy that he nearly pulled us over. He was like a madman, and would not, be quiet, I ordered him to sit down in the boat, but he would not, and my mate and I had to push him down. Then another gentleman cried out, ' Twenty pounds to save my life.' The promise of money did not influenco me, but I eeund hold of him, ho was so heavy. Wo tugged and tugged away, and at last we got him in, and whilst we were doing tins lour little boys floated by us, and their beseeching looks were something dreadful. We saved them, thank God. Then a young lady came close by. I ocized her, and dnow her in, too. Our boat was now pretty full, and wo found wo could not toko in any more and as Wo turned wo saw the bodies of two women, but of course we did know they were quite dead. My mate and I .were nearly paralysed with the effort* wo had made, but wo did not

like to bpo the bodlH go by un. Wo ,;"t them in with gri-ot dilliculty, am , Jtlit'ir (in ...h held ho much wuter. Thn if

young lady was holding on to the form, ( and was turning over ami over when 1 j caught her, When we got the bodies in 1 placed my ear to their, month, but 1 could not hear them breathe, and it seemed that all was over. So loud were the screams and erics for help that wo could not hear ourselves speak. The rush of steam ami fire, too, was something terrible. In u few minutes all was over, and I eould not seethe tunnel of tho Princess Aliee or anything else. The river appeared, when we got there, to be covered with ladies' hair. The ladies Heated, whil-.t th- gentlemen who could not swim sank at onoe. My mate and 1 were on the river tiii daylight, looking out for the poor people, but we Could net .see any." One peculiarity in the calamity is the number of friends, or of members of the same family, who have perished together. Mr. Towse, the superintendent of the river boats, happened to be on board himself, and escaped, but lost his wife; and live or six children. The steward of the vessel sprang into the water with the girl to whom he was engaged to be married and being a good swimmer, placed, her on his shoulder to swim to the shore, but she was washed off and lost, while he escaped. One couple married that day went down together, and sweethearts perished, probably by tho score. One rescued mother had her babe washed from her arms and lost, besides her husband and three other children, Some men sitting at home had the news brought to them that wife and children were all lost; in some eases iue, or even six of a family. Children keeping house found themselves deprived of both parents at one stroke. In several instances even men went raving mad under the news of their calamities. Shakespeare's wolds had a new meaning.—

" All my pretty ones ? Did you say all? All I What, all uiy pretty chickens andtheirdam At one fell swoop?"

Numerous parties of friends made for the day all went down. Invalids who had gone out to take the air. passed to their grave. Due husband lost his wife and five children, with two servants, who had gone to enjoy a pleasant excursion. The mistress of a well-known college for ladies had taken the German governess and six of her pupils down the river, to fulfil the promise she had made of an outing ''the first tine day,'' She alone was saved, her charge being all lost. The Uowcross-street Mission luul collected thirty-one Bible-class women poor mothers and taken them out for a treat, and they appear all to have perished. The disaster has spread its gloom over the whole metropolis, but seems to have fallen most heavily on the south.—English paper.