DEATHLESS STORY. The Birkenhead and its Heroes

The troopship Birkenhead sailed from Cork on 17 January 1852, bound for South Africa with 12 officers, two surgeons and an assistant surgeon, 479 WOs, NCOs and men, 56 women and children and a crew of 130. The troops, drafts from ten regiments, were reinforcements for units involved in the Eighth Kaffir War. After putting into Cape Town, disembarking sick men and some passengers and taking on coal and horses, the Birkenhead sailed for Port Elizabeth on the evening of 25 February. At 1.50 a.m. on the 26th the ship struck a reef about 50 miles out, tearing which a hole in the hull through which the seas rushed in, instantly drowning most of those of the troops occupying the overcrowded lower deck as they slept in their hammocks. The remainder mustered on deck under the orders of Lt Col Alexander Seton of the 74th Highlanders (later to become the 2nd Battalion The Highland Light Infantry), who detailed off parties to man the pumps and assist in launching the eight boats, woefully inadequate for the numbers on board. Eventually three were lowered and got away with, among others, all the women and children. The rest of the troops stood in military formation on the deck as the ship sank, twenty-five minutes after striking the reef. The horses were turned loose to swim ashore but they were attacked by sharks which had gathered round. Many of those left on the ship tried to reach the shore, clinging to wreckage; they, too, were attacked by sharks. The final death toll was 445, including the commander of the vessel, Captain Salmond, and Lt Col Seton; 193 were saved, including all the women and children. The names of those lost, listed in the text, were inscribed on a brass plate and placed in the Chelsea Hospital by command of Queen Victoria, “to record heroic constancy and unbroken discipline.” King William IV of Prussia was so impressed by the heroic behaviour displayed that he ordered all his regiments to be paraded and the story read out to them.
The title page of the book describes it as “the only full and authentic account of the famous shipwreck extant, founded on collected official, documentary and personal evidence, and containing the narratives and lives of the actors in the most glorious ocean tragedy in history.” A truly remarkable tale. This N & MP reprint benefits from previous editions by the inclusion of a full index compiled by Dr Stanley Monick.