THE LOSS OF THE BIRKENHEAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 43, 13 February 1885, Page 7

THE LOSS OF THE BIRKENHEAD.

Op all the wonderful instances of human courage on record there is none more striking than that which is contained in the sad history of the loss of the Birkenhead troopship. The Birkeuhead was an iron paddle-wheel steamer, one of the finest of her class. She sailed from Queenstown, Ireland, on the 7th of January, 1852, for the Cape of Good Hope, and took out a detachment of the 12th Lancers, and detachments of nine regiments of the line. She made a fair and prosperous voyage, sighted the Cape, and as she ran down the coast her passengers looked forward to a speedy release from the pleasant confinement of her decks. It was a fine afternoon, the 25th of February — " The air wfb calm, and on the level brine Sleek Punope and all her sisters play'd" ; the Birkenhead was steamiDg at full speed towards her goal, not dreaming of harm, aud uuoousciom of the proximity of danger. There were 638 persons on boaid, including the ship's company and the wives and children of the soldiers. Suddenly there was a blow that shook every one of the ship's timbers, the Birkenhead trembled from stem to btern, stopped, and began to sink. A rock uoknpwn to navigators had found her out ; and having pierced her side, thrust up its pointed head into the engineroom. There was alaim, but no confusion. Instantly, as though they had been wailing for the pecident, instead of waiting to go ashore, the ship's officers and the officers of the troops issued their necessary orders. The women and children were taken on the upper deck, and the soldiers were mustered there, while the sailors, in obedience to the captain's commands lowered the ship's boats and made ready to go. The boats being manned alongside, the women and children were handed into them, with Buch of the crew as were necessary to take them to the shore. Few if any of the soldiers who saw their beloved ones departing were able to go in the boats, for it was found that the utmost ihe boats could accommodate without endangering the safety of their occupants, was but 184 out of the total number of 638 on board. The land was near, only a few miles distant ; Simon's Bay, to which port ihe Birkeahead was bound, was close at hand ; there was a chance that the boats might return before the final catastrophe came, or help might come at any moment from the port of destination. Some there might have been who indulged in this hope, and who were sustained by it till it was rudely dasbed to pieces ; but the majority of the men knew that escape was all but impossible ; that before the boats could return from the first trip, to say nothing of a second, all would certainly be over. The force with which the ship struck had been bo great as to drive the rock bodily into ' her ; she was being pressed down by the weight of the water that had rushed in, and was showing signs of giving way amidships. Not a murmur was heard from the soldiers as they stood at their death parade, no hint was there of unruliness, of selfishness, or complaint. With death staring them in the face, the men felt comfort in knowing that the women and children were beyond the reach of harm. Some few solemn words of consolation, but none of earthly hope, were spoken by the colonel in command of the troops, and the brave captain of the Birkeahead was not slow to second him in bidding the men resign themselves to their inevitable fate. Soon the i fatal moment came. The good ship, which lay so badly wounded on the sharp spear that had pierced her, could last no longer ; she gave a few convulsive throbs, there was a cracking and a rending and the Birkenkead parted in the middle, sinking in two pieces on either side of the rock. Long ere the boats could get back to her from the shore ; long before the news of her disaster could be told at Simon's Bay, the 454 brave men who had been unavoidably left in her had given up the ghost, had been drovened in the sea or been devoured by sharks. — Cassell's •• World of Wonders."