THE ROCHESTER TAPES PART 1

EPHEMERA

The recent discovery of a street ballad about the Princess Alice pleasure ship disaster may add a little interest, since it concerns a visit to Rosherville, situated in Gravesend.  This was the last of the Victorian pleasure gardens and remained active (but fitfully) for some time after 1910.  The song (unlike the story of The Rochester Tapes) records an actual historical event occurring in September 1878.

A DAY IN ROSHERVILLE PLEASURE GARDEN AT GRAVESEND

attr. Billy Weeks

Telling of the dreadful fate of the Princess Alice, which sank in the River Thames near a raw sewage outlet, with the loss of more than 600 passengers and crew, men, women and children, on the third day of September 1878

Air: Tramps and Hawkers

The day we went to Rosherville the sun was in the sky

Our company was joyful and our spirits they were high

Aboard a paddle steamer, Princes Alice was her name

And this may tell what then befell and what that day became.

We gathered on the crowded deck, not very far from land;

Sailing out past Gallions Reach and down through Erith Rand,

With fiddle and melodeon we sang with such a will

We thought our voices might be heard on far-off Shooters Hill

Now Gravesend is a pretty town and shines like any star,

From the busy waterfront to Tulley’s fine bazaar

We took no tea nor spicey cakes high up on Windmill Hill,

But landed at the pleasure pier of famous Rosherville

We took our first refreshment in the old Baronial Hall

And older people told us of the times they could recall

When dear old Baron Nathan danced upon his spindly legs

And blindfold pirouetted on a platform strewn with eggs.

We wandered past the bear pit and we listened to the band

With archery and side shows and delights on every hand

We threaded through the bushy maze and found the gypsy tent

And there we had our fortunes told -  and wondered what they meant.

We strolled along the wooded walks beside the chalky hill

And there were shady spots where every Jack might kiss his Jill

Then down to see the outdoor stage and hear a comic song

And join in all the choruses to help the tunes along.

Upon the dancing platform with the polka and quadrille

We danced away that happy day we spent in Rosherville

A thousand twinkling lamps then saw the rising of the moon

With fireworks lighting up the sky, our day was gone too soon.

The Princess Alice from Sheerness then welcomed us anew

And happily we joined the throng and greeted those we knew

The siren gave a merry sound and with a plume of steam

The paddle wheels were churning as we rode into the stream.

Not two miles out a chill came down, an east wind from the Nore

Too dark to see the way ahead, pale moonllght lit the shore;

For warmth we took ourselves below and in our parties kept  

And listened to the orchestra as tired children slept.

As we drew near to Woolwich pier a tow’ring ship of steel

Came looming up before us with a pilot at the wheel       

Our steamer gave no warning as she crossed that collier’s path

There was a great collision then that cut our boat in half.

The waters that closed over us were filthy, thick and brown

Such foulness would have poisoned anyone it did not drown

Six hundred people died that day, with passengers and crew,

The old, the young, the weak, the strong and little children too

The days that followed, strong men dragged our bodies to the shore

And carted them along the road to Woolwich dockyard floor

And there and in the old Town Hall they laid us wall to wall.

And marked us all with numbers for we had no names at all.

Then weeping people came and tried to recognise their kin

It was a cold and dreadful task, and where should they begin?

But slowly, slowly, officers compiling gloomy rolls

Identified all those who’d died, except some nameless souls.

Come all you honest people you have heard this story true

This was the worst disaster that our river ever knew;

The dead were more than thirty score, whole families were drowned

Some couples locked in death’s embrace, while some were never found.

So when you rise up early I would have you laugh and sing

For none of us can ever know what any day may bring

Let love empow’r each waking hour, though you remember still

The fate of Princess Alice and our day in Rosherville .  

• • • • • 

NOTES

‘Rosherville: The Place to Spend a Happy Day’

(contemporary advertisement)

The Princess Alice was running a pleasure excursion (returning by moonlight) from London to Sheerness, calling at Rosherville, the fare to the Gravesend pleasure gardens being two shillings. She was grossly overloaded and had only two lifeboats. She sank within four minutes, too quickly for either boat to be deployed.

‘Not two miles out a chill came down…’

Poetic licence.  No record of a change in the weather

‘a tow’ring ship of steel…’

The Bywell Castle was a collier (unladen and, therefore, high out of the water) being piloted down river on its return journey to Newcastle

‘Six hundred people died that day….’

There was no official passenger list.  The final death toll certainly exceeded 650.

‘The days that followed strong men dragged our bodies to the shore…’

Off-duty watermen were paid five shillings for each body recovered.

‘Some couples locked in death’s embrace…’

Dancing couples, at the first sign of the collision, rushed for the exit staircase, where they became solidly jammed.  Unable to move, they drowned standing up.

’Some were never found…’

Millions of gallons of raw sewage and industrial waste fluids were daily released on the ebb tide, intended to carry the filthy mass down to the sea.  The same tide carried an unknown number of drowning passengers downstream.

There were a few strong swimmers fought for their lives by climbing the collier’s anchor cable, but the anchor was dropped to prevent drifting….

REMEMBER

Princess Alice

1878