3-021-740 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Liverpool: the excursion on the River Mersey, 1865. 'Their Royal Highnesses [the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra] embarked on board the saloon-steamer Woodside...[There were] a large number of vessels of all shapes and sizes, decked with the gayest colours...The steamer Woodside is one which plies between Liverpool and Birkenhead...A ladies' saloon was set apart for the special use of the Princess, but her Royal Highness and the Prince preferred the saloon-deck...Every available space on both sides of the river was thronged with human beings, while there were about thirty steamers, filled with crowds of eager spectators, who, when lucky enough to get in sight of the Prince and Princess, cheered most lustily. So eager were the captains of the various steamers to get alongside the Woodside, that all police regulations were set at defiance, and the excitement of the scene at times produced accidental collisions, amidst a chorus of expletives from savage captains, mates, and sailors'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.