LOSS OF BIRKENHEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1929, Page 6

LOSS OF BIRKENHEAD

A STORY OF COURAGE SOLDIERS STAND LIKE STATUES. THE DEATH ROLL NUMBERS 328. The world’s history presents no page on Which a more glorious picture of dauntless heroism is to bo found than the facts relating to that displayed at th© sinking of the transport Birkenhead, which sailed from Queenstown on January 7, 1852, with drafts for nearly every British regiment stationed in South Africa. On February 25 she struck a pinnacle of rock off Point Dangar wink on a passage from Simon’s Bay to Poi Elizabeth, and stuck fast. It was a bright, starry night when tho ship struck, and the sea was < e.i calm. The captain (Mr. Salinom ) ordered the boats to be lowered, and reversed tho engines, with the lesu th© for© part sank almost immediately, most of the men in the forward compartent being drowned in their berths. Tho remainder mustered aft without hast© or confusion, and obeyed the commands given them with coolness and regularity. Women and children were standing awestruck and speechless, and for a while general panic prevailed. As the soldiers appeared on deck they were mustered silently. Discipline was stronger than fear—if fear there was any. Sixty men told off in three reliefs were put on th© chain pumps. In the lower deck sixty were stationed at the tackles of the paddle box boats; all who were not required for active duty crowded together’ in the stern, and stood in silence to await the end. The women and children were quietly got into the boats and cutter, which stood off from th© ship’s side.’ The boats containing the women and children had just got clear of the vessel when she struck against under th© engine room/ causing another yawning chasm through which the water poured in new volumes. The entire bow broke off at the foremast, the bowsprit shot up into air, and the funnel going over the Side carried with it the starboard paddle box and boat. NO CONFUSION OR PANIC. All this happened within fifteen minutes of the striking of the ship, and it was evident that there would be little left of her when a few minutes had elapsed. The water rushing -in through the breaches in th© bottom extinguished the engine fires, driving th© engineers and their men to the upper deck. Hope of keeping the ship above water bad long since fled. Yet the brave fellows in their allotted duties, in which they had been originally told off, never faltered in their duty. Though they knew their labour was in vain, they kept'the pumps going, and the, officers, as if unconscious of danger or anything unusual, issued their commands with duo regard to military phraseology and tone. There was no confusion or* panic. The men from the first acted as quietly and precisely as if they had been on parade. Numbers of tho men must have been drowned at the pumps; others, remaining as they were bidden at the tackle, were crushed by the falling of the funnel and the mast.

Five minutes after the funnel went over the side t'he men were all crowding on the poop. At this time there were three boats in the water, including the cutter, in which the women and children were placed. The commander of the ship, fully aware that" th© last moment was at hand, shouted to all Who could swim to jump overboard and make for the boats. Colonel Seton, of the 52nd Regiment, saw at once that such a course would lead to the swamping of the boats, and he ventured to bo in opposition to Salmond, and entreated the men to remain where, they were, rather than render it impossible to eave tho women and children. A few —not more perhaps than half a dozen—had taken the captain at his word and leaped for their lives. The bulk of the soldiers remained with the officers upon the poop, drawn up like statues, waiting for the water to go over their heads; indulging in no lamentations, but, bouyed up by the sense of duty, manfully staring death in the face without being dismayed. Colonel Seton, the gallant commander of th© troops, in death was not divided from those of his men, and went down with them. IN SHARK-INFESTED WATERS. Twenty minutes after the ship struck the men who crowded it were precipitated into the water, which they knew was infested with sharks, to battle as they might with it, and save themselves in the best manner they could upon the fragments of wreckage which strewed its surface. Five officers and 129 men escaped to the shore by swimming or clinging to driftwood, though many were lost in the fierce surf on the rocky coast. In all 14 officers and 314 non-commissioned officers and men perished, leaving behind them none the less an imperishable name. In the court-martial which subsequently investigated the circumstances of the wreck, a survivor, Captain Wright, df the 91st Regiment, in giving his evidence,, said: “All 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.” Tho court after, hearing the evidence, arrived at the conclusion that the ship was steaming too close to land. The verdict added: “If such be the case, the court still is not precluded from speaking with praise of the departed, for the coolness which they displayed in the moment of extreme peril, and audible anxiety shown for the safety of the women and children, to the exclusion of all self-considerations.” The story of th© Birkenhea spread far and wide. According to Sir John Fortescue, in his latest volume of the “History of the British Army,” the King of Prussia ordered tho deeds to be read to ©very regiment in his army as an example of transcendeut military obedience.

These men were not a single battalion abound together by comradeship and regimental pride. They were young soldiers in small drafts belonging to the 21st, Lancers, 2nd, 6th, 12th, 45th, 52nd, 60th, 73rd, 74th and 91st Regiments of the Line, which had never seen each other before the day of embarkation. Their example sank down deep into the heart not only of the army but,of the nation.

The wreck of the Birkenhead was at on© time looked upon as a national disaster. But was it really so? The story of those soldiers who put the women and children into the boats, and then stood in their ranks without flinching while the ship sank beneath them, has been the pride and glory of tlffe British Army for many years, and ’has without doubt inspired others who wear the same uniform to acknowledge the. same code of honour to many noble deeds of selfsacrifice and devotion, to military duty.