The RMS Royal Adelaide, a paddle steamship owned and operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, sinks in a storm on March 30, 1850, with the loss of two hundred lives. Its principal route runs between London and Cork, County Cork.

The RMS Royal Adelaide, captained by John Batty, leaves Cork fully laden with cargo and about 250 passengers on Wednesday, March 27,1850, touching off at Plymouth, Devon, England, on Thursday evening. By the time the ship leaves Plymouth for London at 3:00 a.m. on Friday, March 29, there are almost three hundred deck passengers.

The ship is totally lost at about 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 30 on Tongue Sands north of Margate, Kent, England, with the loss of all on board. News only reaches London late on Sunday as the river pilot waiting for the ship happens to meet a Deal, Kent, pilot, Charles Gillham, who reports seeing a ship of a similar description in distress the previous evening (The Illustrated London News, April 6 and 13, 1850).

The dead include more than one hundred fifty deck passengers from Ireland, during a time when the Great Famine is at its height.

(Pictured: “The Wreck of the Royal Adelaide,” illustration for The Illustrated London News, April 13, 1850)