Hi, I'm the History Guy. I have a degree in history, I love history and if you love
history too this is the channel for you. Hopefully you've never been in a shipwreck
before but if you did you know the first rule of loading the lifeboats, women & children first. But
did you ever wonder where this protocol came from? Well that's a great question for the History Guy
and so today we're going to talk about an extraordinary story of bravery in
the face of horrible circumstances in the Birkenhead disaster of 1852.
The Birkenhead was an iron hulled steam driven paddle wheel troopship of the British army. She
was driven by two large 564 horsepower steam engines driving a pair of 20-foot paddle wheels
and three sailing masts. Launched in 1845 she was a modern vessel, larger, more comfortable
and faster than the typical wooden sail powered troop ships of her time. She had a top speed of
10 knots, able to make the trip from Britain to the Cape in just 37 days. She was safe too,
her iron hull included 12 airtight compartments separated by strong bulkheads. Named after the
town in Cheshire where she was built, she had a figurehead of the god Vulcan on her prow,
a sign of her iron build. 210 feet long with a 37 foot beam, she had a crew complement of 125
and room for more than 500 passengers. In January of 1852 the Birkenhead left
Portsmouth with troops from 10 different regiments on board headed for South Africa where the troops
were desperately needed as reinforcements in one of the many South Africa border wars. She had
several women and children on board, families of the officers. On the trip three babies were
born. She sailed through a strong Atlantic winter storm and yet her passage was the fastest of any
troop ship to date. The urgency of getting reinforcements to the frontier. On February
23rd she docked in Simon's Town, South Africa and offloaded some of the troops and families,
taking on coal and boarding nine cavalry horses from the 12th Lancers.
She left Simon's Town at about 6:00 p.m. headed for Al Gore Bay and Port Elizabeth
around the Cape. She had some six hundred and forty-three men, women and children on board.
She was in a hurry so she hugged the coast and steamed at full speed. In calm seas and clear
skies, she was making eight and a half knots. Shortly before 2 a.m. the Birkenhead struck a
submerged rock oft aptly named Danger Point near Gansbaai South Africa. Ironically the
barely submerged rock was easily visible in rough seas but not readily apparent in calm conditions.
Ensign G.A. Lucas of the 74th Foot, just 20 years old at the time, later wrote,
“I was awakened by three distinct shocks. I stood up, immediately it struck me that we were stuck
on a rock. There was a gash in the hull, sea water rushed in, at least a hundred soldiers
were immediately drowned trapped sleeping in their bunks.” Ship captain Robert Salmon rushed on deck
shouting orders in a clear and firm voice. He ordered the lifeboats on the quarterdeck lowered,
the women and children were placed in the ships cutter, a small boat. Distress Rockets were fired
but there were no vessels nearby to see. 60 men were detailed to go below and operate the chain
pumps to pump water out of the hole and 60 more women to man the tackle on the two large lifeboats
each able to carry a hundred and fifty people. But when they pulled on the tackle to lift the
lifeboats the ropes broke, the equipment hadn't been maintained, the ropes were rotten and the
hundred 50-person boats were so heavy they could not be lifted on their own. Because of the tilt
several other light boats couldn't be lowered and the Birkenhead only had three operable lifeboats,
the cutter and two other small boats, not nearly enough for everyone on board.
The ranking officer on board, Lieutenant Colonel Seaton of the 74th Foot arranged the remaining
soldiers to stand in ranks on the poop deck using their weight to lift the bow of the ship,
in the pitch-black emergency, the men maintained their discipline.
Captain Salman ordered the engines in reverse thinking he could pull off the rocks it was a
mistake, she struck again on the stern and tore another gash, it flooded the engine room and
killed the boilers the men sent below to man the pumps were instantly drowned. As the ship
broke in half, Salmon ordered the horses thrown overboard in the hopes that they could swim for
shore. Eight of the nine made it then salmon gave a final order all the men who could swim should
jump off and swim for the lifeboats. But that's where the story takes its extraordinary turn.
Colonel Seaton realized that all the men swimming were way too much for the small lifeboats at sea
and so he shouted to his men, “The cutter with the women and children, it will be swamped. I
implore you not to do this thing. I ask that you stand fast” and so they did. They stood bravely
at attention as the ship broke up around them in what became known as the Birkenhead Drill.
One of the few officers to survive the disaster Captain Edward right of the 91st regiment wrote
of that moment “Everyone did as was directed and there was not a murmur or cry among them
all received their orders and carried them out as if they were embarking instead of
going to the bottom.” Port Rudyard Kipling immortalized the moment in his poem Soldier
an Sailor Too - “But to stand and hold still to the Birkenhead Drill is a damned tough bullet
to chew but they did it the jollies, Her Majesty's jollies, soldier and sailor too.”
The Birkenhead had sunk within twenty-five minutes of striking the first rock; many were sucked down
with the ship and many more were horribly taken by the great white sharks which are prolific off
of Danger Point. The next day the Schooner Lioness discovered the cutter with the women and children
and rescued everyone who had been on lifeboats. They returned to the scene of the wreck and found
40 more survivors still clinging to the wreckage. About another hundred had managed to make it
to shore, out of 638 on the Birkenhead, 193 survived, including all of the women and children.
Several other ships foundered off of Danger Point, that's how it got its name but it wasn't until
1885 that a lighthouse was built to warn ships of the reef. The Birkenhead is the first known
example of using the protocol women and children first when loading lifeboats but interestingly
that is not actually codified in maritime law although still to this day the general
protocol is to aid the most vulnerable first the injured, the elderly, children. The conduct of
the soldiers aboard the Birkenhead became known as a model for discipline and self-sacrifice;
it so impressed the Emperor of Prussia, Frederick William the Fourth, that he had an account of
the conduct aboard the Birkenhead read out to every Regiment in his army. There are several
monuments to the victims of the Birkenhead both in England and in South Africa and the people of Gans
by South Africa still hold a memorial every year to remember people who deserve to be remembered,
because of their sacrifice for others. I'm the History Guy, I hope you enjoyed
this edition of my channel, 5 minutes of history, short snippets of forgotten
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