Thursday, March 30, 1899

The Channel steamship, the Stella, hit the Casquets reef near Alderney and sank within two minutes with the loss of 77 lives.

The first ship to the scene was the Vera, amongst whose passengers were Watford's reserve side en route to play a series of friendly matches in Jersey.

The Watford players were commended for their contribution to the rescue effort in helping to salvage and comfort survivors from lifeboats.

Reproduced by kind permission of Matt Rowson from his book, Watford FC On This Day