Once again, I have the pleasure of blogging on the day before the Victoria Day Weekend.
I have blogged twice on Victoria Day and Queen Victoria: once on Queen Victoria fun facts, and once on Queen Victoria’s stockings.
For my third installment, the blog will go, for no particular reason, decidedly darker. In researching for the blog, I came across two terrible Victoria Day tragedies, both with bizarre “Victoria” connections.
(If dark is not your thing this long weekend, please revisit my Victoria Day fun facts. (Although, in reviewing them, many are not so fun, and many are quite tragic.))
Turning to the tragedies:
- In 1881, on Victoria Day (gasp!), the passenger ferry Victoria (gasp again!!) overturned on the Thames River (not THAT Thames River, but the Thames River, Ontario) near London (not THAT London, but London Ontario). The ferry was bringing picnickers back from a nearby park and was significantly overloaded. Many perished. Then-current fashion added to the tragedy. The Victorian-style (gasp!) dresses that many of the female passengers wore became waterlogged and impeded swimming. The tragedy became known as the Victoria Day Disaster. The Victoria was built from the hull of the burned and sunk Enterprise, which caught fire and sank in 1879. To add to the ominousness of the story of the Victoria, the ferry was involved in a minor collision just a year before the disaster, on Victoria Day, 1880.
- In 1896, on Victoria Day (gasp!), in Victoria (gasp again!!), B.C., a streetcar overcrowded with Victoria Day revellers crashed through the Point Ellice Bridge and fell into the Upper Harbour. Many perished. A coroner’s jury later determined that the streetcar operating company was responsible as it allowed the streetcar to be loaded with a weight in excess of what the bridge was designed to support. The city was contributorily negligent because it did not properly maintain the bridge and failed to take steps to restrict traffic on the bridge.
Enough disaster. Enjoy your long weekend. Be safe.