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The Sinking of the Princess Victoria
🕑 Added 2023-01-17 11:15:01 +0000 UTCHere are a few extra notes and sources I found while researching the story of the Princess Victoria.
"On her beam ends"
In many accounts of the sinking, I came across the phrase “on her beam ends” in reference to the ship just before she sank. At first I didn’t know what this meant, so I did a little extra research.
The beam is generally not a physical part of the ship, but instead a measure of the ship at its widest point. When a ship is listing so badly that this line is almost vertical, then a ship is said to be “on her beam ends” because the beam of the ship is standing almost on end.
The phrase was actually included in one of the last transmissions from the Princess Victoria. Which really underlines the courage that radio operator David Broadfoot demonstrated by remaining at his post!
An old news reel
I came across an old news broadcast about the sinking. It’s pretty rare to be able to find news footage like this for disasters that took place in the 1950s or earlier… and this one is certainly worth a watch.
It features some footage of the rescue boats coming in which – to forewarn you – includes some images of what appear to be dead bodies.
There’s also a very matter-of-fact interview with a survivor, who talks about his experience of the disaster. It’s fascinating to watch this kind of thing and see how different news coverage was back then compared to now!
Comments
Fascinating Horror
Thanks for this suggestion - and for the links to get me started with my research! Have added it to the list
Fascinating Horror
That would certainly be interesting. I've actually been researching some local ghost stories recently... and it's interesting to see how little details get copied and magnified as these stories are retold. Often when you look at the original sources the stories are still quite interesting and difficult to explain... but much less dramatic than how they're usually re-told!
Always appreciate your work. Especially when you include some of the interesting research tidbits. Although outside your typical scope, I’d love to see / hear you do a video on some of the obscure “legitimate” paranormal events in history. There are a lot of others that do it but they all “parrot” or “borrow” from each other and are absent any meaningful research. I just think that if you did one, you’d add a lot of credibility, as your stories are always so well documented and fact based. Just a thought…
Michael Rutherford
I'd like to see a video on the crash of ValuJet Flight 592. It crashed into the Florida Everglades in 1996 due to an in-flight fire caused by improperly handled oxygen-generating cannisters stored in the cargo hold. I'm familiar with it mainly due to the Seconds From Disaster episode about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSBwReY7lj4 There's also a good episode of Mayday (AKA Air Crash Investigations) about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9jpn0-66Vo
