RMS ''Royal Adelaide'' was a paddle
steamship owned and operated by the
City of Dublin Steam Packet Company
The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail. It was 'wound-up' by a select commit ...
. Its principal route ran between
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Cork.
Final journey
The ''Royal Adelaide'', captained by John Batty, left Cork fully laden with cargo and about 250 passengers on Wednesday, 27 March 1850, touching off at Plymouth on the Thursday evening. By the time the ship left Plymouth for London at 3.00 am on Friday, there were almost 300 deck passengers.
The ship was lost at about 11.00 pm on Saturday, 30 March 1850 on Tongue Sands north of
Margate
Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significan ...
, with the loss of all on board. News only reached London late on Sunday as the
river pilot waiting for the ship happened to meet a Deal pilot (Charles Gillham) who reported seeing a ship of a similar description in distress the previous evening (''London Illustrated News'' 6 and 13 April 1850).
The dead included more than 150 deck passengers from
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, during a time when the
Great Famine was at its height.
External links
*
''Moving Here'' website
Royal Adelaide (1838)
Royal Adelaide (1838)
Royal Adelaide (1838)
1850 in the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in March 1850
Shipwrecks of the River Thames
Maritime disasters in Kent
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