On Monday evening, between nine and ten, as the Thunder steamer was returning from Putney, heavily laden with passengers, she struck her larboard side against the pier of Battersea-bridge; the concussion was so violent that both paddle-boxes were shattered to atoms. The immense crash occasioned by the concussion created the greatest alarm on board, the screams of the females being terrible. Two passengers on deck, one a gentleman and the other a lad, were, by the violence of the concussion, forced overboard. A waterman, named George Elliot, a coxswain at Searle’s boat-house, who was boating two gentlemen, picked up the lad, and the gentleman was picked up by a lug-boat, both in a very exhausted state. Several boats put off to the assistance of the steamer, and she was towed ashore to the White Swan Stairs, where her passengers were safely landed.
The Illustrated London News, London, England, Week Ending August 20, 1842
