RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2021 :: RMTnews

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2021 :: RMTnews 27 going astern’. They also said that there should be ‘proper and stringent rules and regulations laid down for all stream navigation on the River Thames’. The Board of Trade inquiry blamed the Princess Alice, finding that she had breached the Board of Trade Regulations and the Regulations of the Thames Conservancy Board, 1872. These required a vessel to port her helm if she came end on to another vessel travelling in the opposite direction. By a further twist of fate, five years after the disaster, in 1883, the Bywell Castle herself disappeared, sometime after being sighted off the Portuguese coast. One of the most popular tracks on the GFTU CD Working River: songs and music of the River Thames is The Wreck of Princess Alice, a 19th century poem put to music commemorating the sinking. This ethereal and mesmerising contribution by Crafting for Foes captures the depth of the tragedy and the sudden sense of loss. Now artist Christopher Mick has collaborated with sculptor Vincenzo Muratore to produce a suitable piece of art to commemorate the lives lost. Chris felt that it was time to remember a disaster that he himself had known nothing about until recently and to remember how many safety rules only come about due to tragedies like this one. “Whilst walking on the Thames path between Woolwich and Erith I saw a small sign denoting the location of the disaster. Despite living and working in London for most of my adult life, I had never previously heard about this tragic event. “The sheer scale of the disaster, and the miserable circumstances surrounding it, demand that people should know what happened. “Accidents will always happen, it’s a brutal fact of life. But if the rules of inland waterway navigation that we use today had been in existence back then it is almost certain that this accident would never have occurred. “The loss of such a large number of civilians in a single event is something we should respectfully commemorate,” he said. Adam Rees of Crafting for Foes feels the same way and thinks that the many hidden histories of the Thames should be remembered. “What I found moving about the original poem about the Princess Alice is the fragility of life, one minute these people were enjoying a day out the next they were fighting for their lives. “I also think that it is largely a forgotten disaster maybe because the vast majority of those that perished that day were workers and their families. “I think the stories of ordinary people are often lost with each turn of the tide. “Yet for me the lives of workers and those who built and toiled in London are far more interesting than that of kings and queens and the rich and that it what the Working River CD is all about really,” he said. Chris says that while they do not yet have a permanent home for the piece popular opinion suggests that it should be on permanent public display somewhere in London. “We would be happy to support this idea. In the short term, we will be showing the work at an exhibition at the Art in the Docks gallery in Royal Albert Wharf starting in June to coincide with the lifting of lockdown restrictions,” he said.