Royalist (1931)

Classification

• Incident Type: Collision
• Severity: High
• Region: United Kingdom
• Evidence basis: Admiralty Division judgment, contemporary newspaper reports, and Thames tug history.

Vessel Details

The other vessel was the American Merchant Lines steamship American Trader, a passenger-and-cargo vessel in the New York-London service. Archival fleet material identifies that ship as a 7,130-ton vessel measuring 436 by 58 feet.

Incident Details

Key facts

• Thames Tugs records the collision and sinking at approximately 18:30 on 28 December 1931.
• Royalist sank immediately; one person was rescued by another tug, while eight others were reported lost in the strongest recurring casualty count.
• The tug was raised on 29 December, towed in slings to Charlton, and beached. Police recovered two bodies from the engine room, and another body was recovered from the Thames at Rainham on 24 January 1932.
• The Admiralty Division later found Royalist alone to blame for crossing American Trader's bows and recrossing without warning.
• A separate contemporary newspaper report counted nine deaths, so the exact casualty total and roster remain unresolved.

Narrative

On the evening of 28 December 1931, Royalist, a 57-gross-ton Cory Lighterage tug, collided with the American Merchant Lines steamship American Trader in Gallions Reach near the Albert Dock hoists. Thames Tugs records the casualty at approximately 18:30. The Admiralty Division case report describes Royalist as being in the process of turning while American Trader was proceeding upriver. Royalist sank, and another tug rescued one person from the water. Eight other people were reported lost by Thames Tugs and by contemporary reports covering the inquest and recovery of the wreck. A separate contemporary newspaper account reported four crew and five lightermen lost, giving a total of nine; the eight-person figure is retained here as the best-supported recurring count, but the casualty roster is not established.

Royalist was raised the following day and towed in slings to Charlton, where she was beached. Police searching the tug recovered two bodies from the engine room, and a further crew member's body was recovered from the river at Rainham on 24 January 1932. The Admiralty Division judgment, reported in 1932, held that Royalist crossed American Trader's bows from port to starboard and then recrossed from starboard to port without giving the fullest warning of her manoeuvres. The court found American Trader's speed fast but not negligent and found no evidence of a bad lookout. A contemporary report attributed the casualty to dense fog, but that explanation was not adopted as the court's finding.

Sequence of events

Contributing factors

Investigation

The Admiralty Division judgment reported as The “American Trader,” (1932) 43 Ll L Rep 54 was heard before Mr Justice Langton with Captain Owen Jones and Captain C. E. Homan, Elder Brethren of Trinity House. The court held that Royalist was alone to blame for the collision. Contemporary reporting also records a Greenwich Coroner's Court inquest, but no publicly accessible inquest verdict or separate Board of Trade casualty report was identified.

References

• The “American Trader,” Admiralty Division judgment, (1932) 43 Ll L Rep 54
• Royalist entry, Thames Tugs, WM Cory Ltd. 3
• “Thames Tug Tragedy,” Liverpool Evening Express, 5 January 1932
• “Eight Dead in Thames Collision,” The Straits Times, 28 January 1932
• “Nine Die in Ship Collision,” Kewaskum Statesman, 8 January 1932
• American Merchant Lines archival collection

Related

• Royalist
• American Trader
• United Kingdom
• Collision
• Tug Incident Classification

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