The Loss of the SS Thames on the short, routine trip from Dublin to London in January, 1841 caused shock across England, not least because only four people survived out of the 65 on board. Even the young Queen Victoria was so moved by the tragedy that she ordered 10 shillings to be paid from the royal purse to the widows of the seamen who were lost. Also, the whole tragedy played out before a horrified public, who watched from the cliff-tops at Penzance in Cornwall, on the English coast, and from the beach of St Mary on the Scilly Isles.