The Launch of H.M.S. Albion

Blackwall
1898
Silent
2m

The launch of H.M.S Albion, which was marred by the collapse of a gangway which resulted in many spectators drowning.

This early film captures the launch of the H.M.S. Albion, which was marred by the collapse of a gangway which resulted in many spectators drowning. Film pioneer Robert Paul was filming the launch at water level - and he continued filming after the collapse of a gangway, while his launch picked up many survivors. His decision to continue filming, and then to exhibit the film, aroused much controversy.

See also the Prestwich film of the launch, Launch of H.M.S. Albion at Blackwall, which is taken from the opposite side of the river and shows the ship going down the slipway and turning. It also does not show the gangway collapse.

Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film

The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film

The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.