Victoria steamboat disaster

The Victoria steamboat disaster (also called The Victoria Day Disaster) was a Canadian maritime disaster on May 24, 1881, in which the sternwheel passenger steamboat SS Victoria, capsized and sank in the Thames River near what is today Greenway Off-Leash Dog Park in Kensal Park, London, Ontario. The tragedy was one of the worst maritime disasters in Canada at the time, and made major headlines ^[1] in places as far as England and the United States due to the severity of the disaster. An estimate between 182 and 198^[1] is regarded as the death toll. The disaster resulted in the gradual decline in popularity of riverboat services in London, Ontario.

Background

In the late 19th century, London, Ontario had a population of roughly 19,000 people ^[1] and was rapidly becoming a larger and larger city.

Future growth the City of London was guaranteed after a new water supply was secured at the fresh water springs near the village of Byron (today a part of London) in 1878.^[2] The construction of the new pump house and a small reservoir led to the establishment of Springbank Park, a long stretch of picnic and recreational area along the southern shore of the Thames River in Byron.

The completion of the London Waterworks System in 1879, by building a dam at Springbank had the effect of raising the water in the river, and providing a beautiful stretch of some four miles for boating purposes. Some enterprising citizens took advantage of this by construing small passenger boats on the river, which ran regular trips through the summer between Downtown London and Byron^[3].

Two riverboat companies, the London & Waterworks Line and the Thames Navigation Company were soon set up. Many of the vessels suffered makeshift construction and relaxed safety standards, and has shallow hulls to accommodate the varying depth of the river. Out of all three ^[4] of the steamboats that operated on the Thames at the time of the disaster, the worst built was the Victoria.^[2]

The Victoria

The Victoria was built in 1880, by using the hull of the former SS Enterprise, another steamboat on the Thames which had sank after catching fire during the previous winter^[5].

The Victoria, registered with Port Stanley as her homeport, was finished with a glossy white painted hull with royal blue trim. She could easily cover the distance of Springbank Park within half an hour. She was powered by a 60 horsepower boiler, 14 feet in length, 3½ in diameter with ninety tubes. She was also equipped with a steam pump, handle pump, and inspirator to keep the boiler supplied with water. The engine was furnished by Mr. J. White of Forest City Machine Works, which sat on King Street in London at the time. It was a single cylinder, 10½ inches in diameter, 29 inches stroke and fitted to a wheel crank. The shaft was 17 feet in length, upon which were two paddle wheels ten by four feet each.

The ship itself was a sternwheeler, with two decks and a hurricane roof, measuring from bow to stern 80 feet, with a beam of 23 feet and a hull 3 feet and 10 inches deep. The steering mechanics were regarded as having been improvement from the old system, with the pilot house on the upper deck being open. Seats for passengers encircled both decks, with accommodation for about five hundred. ^[6]

The height between the two decks was about seven feet. The government of Ontario had made a proper and thorough inspection of the ship in 1880, declaring her safe. The Victoria cost about $5000 to build.

Disaster

On May 24, 1881, Londoners were eager to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. On the last voyage of the evening, the Victoria loaded her passengers in Springbank Park. Many were eager to get home to London, and decided to take the fifteen-cent boat ride up the river. At the time of the Victoria leaving the pavilion at Springbank Park, the docks were packed full of people.

The Victoria, like the two other riverboats navigating the river at the time: the Princess Louise and Forest City, was built to carry at most 500 passengers per trip. But on a day like the day the disaster occurred, the riverboat captains were eager for extra business^[2] from the large wave of travelers to and from the park in Byron.

As the Victoria passed Griffith's Dam (today the Guy Lombardo Bridge on Wonderland Rd S and Springbank Drive) passengers noted that water was ankle-deep^[2] on the lower deck. Captain Donald Rankin realized that he was not going to be able to successfully sail the Victoria to Downtown London. He stopped the Victoria at her scheduled stop at the wharf at Woodland Cemetery, where he rejected to take on any new passengers, and decided to continue up the river.^[7] He attempted to drive the Victoria onto a small sandbar that he spotted up ahead, in the river close to what is today Greenway Park. He had barely made a move towards this decision when two members of the London Rowing Club decided to race each other down the river. Excited, passengers on both decks of the Victoria rushed to the railing of the starboard side which caused an unbalance of weight on the small riverboat. The boiler broke loose from its mounting, killing passengers with scalding-hot water on its way down. It knocked out support struts and the railings on the starboard side of the boat, which sent the hurricane roof down onto the passengers on the promenade deck below. The entire upper deck of the Victoria collapsed onto the lower deck, crushing and killing passengers. Many others fell into the muddy riverbed, and were killed as the ship keeled over onto her starboard side. The ship, now free of it's weight of passengers, righted itself and sank, leaving the upper promenade deck floating and covering those underneath it and promptly drowning them. Two young men who were swimming nude in the river before the Victoria sank attempted to help rescue drowning passengers but drowned themselves in the wreckage.

Aftermath

The Princess Louise was sailed down the river to the site of the shipwreck, and her decks were set up to pile up recovered bodies from the sunken Victoria, which lay half under the shallow river water. When news of the sinking reached London, the entire city was shocked by how such an event could happen, and it was difficult to find someone who wasn't affected by the tragedy with a death of a family member, neighbor, child or spouse.^[8][2] Other bodies were lined on the riverbank. Hundreds of Londoners, throughout that evening and into the early morning of the next day made their way down to the shipwreck to claim bodies of relatives.

The disaster made Londoners reluctant to use the riverboat system that had been working perfectly to transport people up and down the river.

The wreckage of the Victoria was mostly removed shortly after the disaster, and the wooden parts of the ship have rotted away. The metal hull sits beneath the muddy riverbed in the Thames River.

Legacy

A plaque was built at the site of the disaster in the mid-20th century. It includes a description of the disaster and the anchor from the Victoria sits beside the memorial.^[9]

Most of the victims of the disaster are today buried in Woodland Cemetery, which just so happened to be the last port of call that the Victoria stopped at before coming to rest on the cold riverbed minutes later.

Twenty-three-year-old Willie Glass and his nineteen-year-old sweetheart, Fanny Cooper, today rest in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in adjoining graves. A single headstone supporting a tall pillared arch covers the graves. The inscription, "They were lovely in their lives," begins on one pillar and continues, "and in death they were not divided," on the other. The young couple were to have been married two weeks from the day of the wreck but tragically lost their lives.

The Victoria Day Disaster today is a well-known event in history to many Londoners, although the individual stories of those lost in the shipwreck are mostly shrouded in mystery or lack of information.

In popular culture

London historian Daniel "Dan" J. Brock has shed light on many aspects of the disaster in recent years. He has been dedicated to finding as much information as possible on the shipwreck. His 2011 book "Fragment of the Forks" includes a great deal of information on the disaster.

References