RMS Royal Adelaide (1838)
The RMS Royal Adelaide was a paddle steamship owned and operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. Its principal route ran between London and Cork.
Final journey
The Royal Adelaide, captained by John Batty, left Cork fully laden with cargo and about 250 passengers on Wednesday, 27th March 1850, touching off at Plymouth on the Thursday evening. By the time the ship left Plymouth for London at 3 a.m. on the Friday morning, there were almost 300 deck passengers.
The ship was totally lost at about 11 p.m. on the Saturday night on Tongue Sands north of Margate, with the loss of all on board. News only reached London late on Sunday as the river pilot awaiting 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 during a time when the Great Famine was at its height.
References
Coordinates: 51°29.5′N 01°20.9′E / 51.4917°N 1.3483°E
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