Good Friday of 1817 was a tragic and momentous day for twenty-two people in Norwich, and for some it was sadly their last. A report in the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette, published the following day, recounts the tragedy.

The report noted that the names of the victims were as yet unknown, but it was able to state the names and conditions of the six women conveyed to the hospital. They had various injuries. One, Esther Walton aged fifty of Yarmouth, suffered a badly fractured leg which had to be amputated, while Mary Stephen aged thirty-six, also of Yarmouth, with compound fractures, lost both legs. By the time of the paper's next issue, the following Saturday, 12 April, a coroner's inquest had occurred. The jurors’ verdict on the nine fatalities (the original eight had been added to by the discovery of the body of a two-year-old-boy in the river) was “Accidental Death.” The paper listed the names, ages and hometowns of the victims - mostly from Yarmouth and Norwich - including one William Nickerson, the steersman of the vessel. It also provided details of “the persons who providentially escaped,” three young children and four males, the latter including the engineer and the steward of the vessel.