Question

In 1878 the Princess Alice, a steamboat that took day-trippers up and down the Thames, crashed into another ship, sank, and pitched over 600 passengers into the river; 130 people were rescued but several later died. What was their death attributed to?

Answer 1

Swallowing raw sewage which had been pumped into the river
Although the co-ordinated sewer network and pumping system created by Sir Joseph Bazalgette was well underway at the time the plans still called for discharging untreated sewage into the Thames, although much closer to the mouth of the river than previously. The Princess Alice overturned an hour after 75 million gallons of raw sewage had been pumped into the river, making the water black and poisonous. The tragedy encouraged the development of sewage treatment plants.