3-086-465 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Launch of H.M.S. "Albion": the vessel on the slip at Blackwall, 1898. Disaster after the launch of a warship on the Thames in London, by the future Queen Mary of Teck. 'What seemed a most brilliant and successful function was destined to be marred by an appalling disaster, involving the loss of many lives...The Duke and Duchess of York had...left the building yard before they learned that a terrible mishap had occurred. A gangway between two slips upon which some hundreds of people were gathered to witness the proceedings, had been washed away by the wave caused by the displacement of water consequent upon the launch. It appears that notices of warning were posted near the fatal gangway, but an East-End crowd is more wilful than its western counterpart. The occupants of the staging were precipitated into deep water and upwards of thirty were drowned. Rescue parties immediately put out...but it was impossible to save all. The scenes were heartrending as the bodies of victims, mostly women and children belonging to the poor districts of Plaistow and Canning Town, were brought ashore...The Duke of York, on hearing the first rumour of the disaster, sent a telegram of anxious inquiry to Mr. Hills, who could only confirm the distressing news.' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.