“Marchioness”/“Bowbelle”

A Legal Odyssey

At about 01.46 on 20 August 1989 the dredger “Bowbelle” came into collision with the passenger vessel “Marchioness” on the River Thames. At the time of the collision there were 130 people on board the “Marchioness”, of whom 51 lost their lives and 79 survived. It was the worst disaster to occur on the River Thames since the collision between the paddle steamer “Princess Alice” and the steamer “Bywell Castle” on 3 September 1878, when over 600 lives were lost.