Dave Rickard wrote a song about the sinking of the SS Princess Alice in 1878 (when she sank, not when he wrote it)

Chorus was;

When the Princess Alice sank in Barking reach
Six hundred and thirty died together
Not all had been drowned as the coroner found
Some were poisoned by the black stinking river...

sorry, can't remember the rest, don't know if anyone else knows of it?