This Week's Great Day

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18091, 26 February 1927, Page 19

This Week's Great Day

Meusontfele Events Ist (he * mO v history of ttie Empire* _

By

Charles Conway

FEBRUARY 26: THE WRECK OF THE BIRKENHEAD.

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, ON FEBRUARY 26, 1852, the wreck of the British troopship Birkenhead oft the South African coast was the occasion of one of the grandest displays of discipline and selfsacrifice in the history of the world. The Kaffir War was then raging, and the Birkenhead was on her way from Simon’s Town to Algoa Bay with a detachment of troops, mostly young recruits, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Seton, and was also carrying a small number of women and children and sick men, which, with the crew, made up a total of 638 persons on board. It was a clear night, and the ship was sailing slowly through a calm sea when she suddenly struck a submerged rock, which tore a great hole in the hull of the vessel. Only the crew on duty were awake at the time, two o clock in the morning, and a large number of men who were sleeping on the lower deck were drowned in their hammocks. The survivors made for the upper deck, the crew going to their posts and the soldiers falling into line on the word of command, standing at attention as calmly and quietly as though on parade. There were only two serviceable lifeboats available, and these were at once lowered into the water, and into them were crowded the whole of the women and children and sick men. This had no sooner been done than the Birkenhead broke in two, the heavy funnel fell and crushed to death over sixty men, and the front portion of the vessel sank below the surface, which was swarming with sharks. The stern portion of the ship remained afloat for a short time longer, and there the soldiers stood rigidly at attention until Colonel Seton gave the command that all who could swim should leap overboard. If this order had been obeyed the two small life-boats would have inevitably been swamped, and the whole of the women and children drowned, but two young officers, Captain Wright and Lieutenant Girardot, who realised the danger, called on the men to halt, which they did with three exceptions. In a few minutes the stern disappeared, and the little band of heroes maintained their ranks as the deck sank beneath the waves. About 120 men saved their lives by clinging to pieces of floating wreckage, seventy being washed ashore and the remainder being picked up in the late afternoon by a passing vessel, which had already rescued the occupants of the two life-boats. Four hundred and thirtjvfour lives were lost in all, and of this number three hundred and thirty-eight were soldiers, whose discipline and calmness in the face of death was the more remarkable owing to the short time they had been in the service. Their heroism and self-sacrifice will for ever remain one of the great outstanding events in the lengthy roll of valiant deeds which is the pride and glory of the British Army. [Copyrighted.]