SOME FAMOUS SHIPWRECKS.

NZ Truth, Issue 90, 9 March 1907, Page 7

SOME FAMOUS SHIPWRECKS.

FOUNDERING OF THE BIRKENHEAD-

The British Soldier Dies Game.

438 Sink Shoulder to Shoulder*

A Model for All Time.

( (Continued;)

But we must now return for a moment to the scene of the wreck. Before the /Birkenliead went down the reader will remember the women and children were lowered into the cutter, under the command of Mr Richards, with instructions to. remain a certain distance from the ship. W ( hen she sank he pulled towards the spot. Assailed on every hand by Entreaties to take up half-drowned wretches m the water, and m continual danger of being swamped by the efforts di strong men to climb into the boat, he was reluctantly compelled to keep clear of the part where jfche fragments of wreck were thickest. It went to his heart to be compelled to reply, even to an officer like Renwick, the chief assistant engineer, whom he well knew, ..that, the boat was already : "■'"■■■' ' NEARLY* SIN'KING/ '

The boat was them headed lor the shore, Richards's object being to land the women . and children with all despatch, and return to the. wreck. The furious surf 'threatened; to swamp the heavily-laden cutter ; it foamed around her till the white froth bubbled over the gunwales. > Finding that it would be madness to risk a furr ther attempt, Richards at once extricated himself from the breakers, and hailed to the other boats . pulling; towards them to remain wneie they were until he had discovered a. clear passage. He then moved six or seven miles along the coast, only to find iin J unbroken' wall of raging foam between him and the shore upon which the poor women and children gazed with wistful eyes. At daylight a schooner wa^. descried not more than five or six miles at sea, and away went the cutter m pursuit/ Two or three hours passed m this way, and then a breeze springing up the ■schooner disappeared from view. Richards abandoned any further efforts m; ithat direction, and brice more turned to land. ■'. With the freshening wind the sea rose, greatly to the peril of the cutter. . ; When she reached the scene of the deserted wreck, not a soul was left. At. length the schooner was seen approaching tile shore, and another desperate 'attempt was resolved upon. A woman's shawl was hoisted as a signal of .distress, and the cutter went' out to meet the- stranger. .They were this time observed '; the schooner hove to, and after 12 hours \of cold, wet, hunger; and thirst, the sorrowful women and children, uncertain as to the fate of their friends, but

FEARING THE WORST, were taken on board the schooner Lioness, of Capetown; Thirty-six men, rescued from the other cutter, wore already on board, . enjoying the

kindness of Captain Ramsden and his warm-hearted wife. The assistant surgeon and eight men had made their escape m one of the gigs, and lanced without much difficulty at Point Danger. Renwick, who had called to Richards entreating to be taken m the cutter, had been picked up 'by this gig: - ■■■ -'\ V Before giving up the search for other survivors, Richards, now joined liy Renwick, undertook to pull along the coast m the cutter, if the Lion-' ess would wait for them. Their t excursion Was, however, fruitless. The schooner, before sailing for Simon's Bay, rescued 116 persons. Some of the forty or fifty men who, at the sinking of the Birkenhead, found refuge on the maintopsail. yard, did not survive the -night; They drdpped off at intervals! from fatigue, a&d sank. No-assistan^S^ippearing at daybreak, ' others leaped into the sea and swam for pieces of wreck, which they observed generally drifted to-, wards land. More than half were successful m their daring venture ; the others succumbed fto physical exhaustion^ or were snapped at and dragged, down by the ferocious sharks.

The Birkenhead's purser was able to retain his hold on the yard to the last. He and his companions 'caught sight of the schooner, whose presence m the offing had also attracted the people m the cutiter, > ,and whbse temporary disappearance, had' filled them also with dismay . . Frpin his precarious perch amongst the rigging, the 1 purser noticed the. gunwale of. on« of the unused boats peeping above the water. He drew his companions' attention to the discovery ; m it there were hopes of speedy release from

PROLONGED CAPTIVITY. ' The submerged .> boat moved slowly, but her direction was unmistakably towards them. A few yards more, and the nearest ■' gunwale might have been Teized. It was not to be ; she drifted tantalizinigly. near, but 'for any practical purpose it was as if she v had been - . miles away. The schooner, with the two cutters 'm tow, came at last,, and the 37 men; who had survived "bhe privations of the night, soon rejoined their old acquaintances on board the Lioness.

The party at Captain Small's farm being comfortably housed, Captain Wright, m spite of his previous exertions, returned to the coast,' and for three, days clambered up and down the rocks for some twenty miles to make, sure that there was no' helpless creature cast tip requiring assistance. A whaleboat's creW, that had been sealing about Dyer's Island joined him m his search, pulling along the verge of the clbsely-pack-

ed seaweed, whilst he moved m a parallel line on shore. Two men were rescued m the last stages of exhaustion, clinging to pieces of timber m the tangled weed ; on shore Captain Wright found two others m the clefts of the rocks, and m a day or two they quite recovered. Several officers dispersed along the 'coast with. search parties, and 'found bodies to bury, but no lives to save. Five horses had swum ashore, and were afterwards caught. Of the two paddlebox boats driven on shore one came m keel 'uppermost ; the quarter-mas-ter and six' men had escaped m the other, which stove inland drifted about full of water. THE QUARTER-MASTER survived ; the rest died from exhaustion and cold.- . One result of the news of the wreck at Capetown was the departure of the Rhadamanthus steamer to thespot. Captain Wright, and all the men who had beeh at' Captain Small's farm, embarked m boats, and were taken by the Rhadaman* thus to Simon's Bay, where they arrived on Monday afternoon ..March 1. The careful search instituted enabled the officers who had conducted ,it to assert with confidence that when the Rhadariranthus left there was not a living soul on the .coast of those who had been on board the Birkenhead. An experienced army officer "like Captain Wright, wedded to discipline, and acquainted with its severest forms, was able to say that the order and regularity prevailing on board, from the time the ship struck, till she totally disappeared, far" exceeded „ anything he imagined could he eflkcted by discipline. It was the more,' fo.be wondered at seeing that mpst^ofy the troops had been but a short^fme m the service. And Captain Wright adds that every one did as he was directed, and that there was Tiot a murmur, or a cry amongst the men until the vessel made her final plunge. No individual officer could be distinguished above another: "AU received' their orders, and . had them carried out as if the ;men were embarking instead of going to the bottom,; there was only this difference, that I never saw any embarkation conducted with so little noise and confusion." . . . ' v >. The boats :of the Birkenhead were of .little use ; the long* boat alone^ if it could have been got. at, might have carried 80 men 1 at a time, and by rapid trips to and from the shore might have much lessened . THE DREADFUL SACRIFICE of. life. On board the. Birkeriliead, when she sailed for Algoa Bay, were ,631 souls, and the lives saved were 192 '■; 433 were lost. A court-martial subsequently investigated the circumstances of % the wreck. The court, after hearing evidence, arrived at the conclusion that the ship was steaming too near the land. It was admitted that the shore could* not be seen m the darkness, nor the sound of the breakers heard. But /the verdict added, "If such be the case, the. court still are noi; precluded from speaking with praise of the departed for the coolness which they displayed m the moment of extreme peril, and for. the laudable anxiety shown for the safety of the women and children, to the exclusion of all selfish considerations," "Lloyd's Weekly News," of November 18 last, says : — ECHO OF THE BIRKENHEAD ; WRECK. The death is announced at Coventry of Mt J. Kitson, of Albanyroad, who was believed to be the only survivor of the wreck of the Birkenhead off Simon's Bay, South Africa, on January 7, 1852, when, of G36 troops and crew, only 184 were saved. Mr Kiteon suffered great privations with others before he reached land. He was aged <74 years, and was a vigorous man before he took to his bed. He could seldom be persuaded to speak of the wreck. For some years he filled an official position at the Coventry Barracks, and was a widower leaving several grown-up children. While m the army he was attached to a Staffordshire regiment, and on one occasion an official from THE WAR OFFICE visited him with the object of gleaning particulars of his life." The wreck of the Birkenhead was brought" about by caxeless or ignorant navigation and no amount of heroism will atone for the blockheads Who, not being, sure of the position of the vessel, ran her full speed upon that submerged rock. Nearly every steamer that has. struck and caused disaster, whether on the shores of Australia or elsewhere, did so by being carelessly- navigated, and, had she been given a safe offing instead of hugging the shore blindly, all would have been well. But the mania and necessity of making fast passages by any skipper wishing to keep; his billet, probably accounts for the many wrecks and missing ships whose quota is being steadily added to m various parts of the ocean month by month and year by year. The tragic story of the Limerick shin Francis Spaight, water-logiged m the Atlantic, will be told next week. ' ' _^