PS Alexandra
1865 Built by Kirkpatrick, McIntyre & Co at Port Glasgow. 279 tons. 140 N.H.P. for the Saloon Steam Packet Co, London. Fitted with diagonal oscillating engines by Smith and Co. of Greenock.
1866 Sold by mortgagees; acquired by Robert Brown, Notting Hill
1875 One of the steamers taken over by the Woolwich Steam Packet Co, a handsome two-funnelled paddler having upper main deck saloons fore and aft of the paddleboxes. The ALEXANDRA was built in 1865 and originally intended as a blockade runner, but the American civil war having ended before she was completed she was purchased by a concern known as The Saloon Steampacket Company, of London, and became the first large steamboat of the saloon type employed in passenger traffic on the river Thames between London Bridge and Gravesend. At the time she was advertised to carry 1,048 passengers which “can be so distributed that there need be no apprehension of overcrowding. She is substantially built, and her fitments and decorations are ingenious and tasteful without being unnecessarily costly, while the general arrangements for her management are such as will secure the favour of the public.”
1876 Acquired by the London Steam Boat Co
1885 Acquired by the River Thames Steamboat Co
1889 broken up some time after being wrecked near London Bridge without loss of life.
See Also
Sources of Information
- 'Steamers of the Thames and Medway' by Frank Burtt
- [1] Clyde Ships