LOSS OF THE BIRKENHEAD

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2197, 9 July 1914, Page 7

LOSS OF THE BIRKENHEAD

—* , "'I I' ' DEATH OP LAST SURVIVOR. . \i — , \ - 1 ' [ The death was recently, announced of ■ ] iCaptiiin G. Lucas, tho lastilsurwvor of ' t] the Birkotihead tragedy: Tlul reciills one, ; of tho'finest examples of heroic conduct' 1 'j in tho face of death •tojbeofound in tho - ,{ annals of tho British Army. The troop- t j ship Birkenhead ■was carrying troops to 'j Algoa, Bay in 1852.' Theiolwere in,all; ' J C3B souls on board, mostly detachments 'f from several regiments, -n ith the wives I Land children of.a number of .them.. , M >r ' * On the night of February 26, th< ~ JL*\ \ weather being clear and tho captain an« '- j 1 Scions to shorten tho voyage as much as L J possible, the ship was kept close to the 1 • .! shore. As Cape Danger, near Simon's i 5 Bay, drew abreast, tbe Birkenhead,'at' , tho time making about nino milea an hour, stmck niijon a sunken rock ! with such force that in a few minutes it i

was ippnront slio was doomed The roll of the drums called the troops to arms | and though \»cry man know it; was a ' Rummons to'death, with, not eron the battlefield's chances of escape the? paraded calmh on the upper deck, nono ( > showing nnj sign of restlessness, though eveij moment the deck beneath their , feet slanted moio threateningly and sank noaior the dirk surface of the sea Colonel Soton, of the 74th Highlanders, J commander, of tho troops, stated tho position, quietly and to the> point- ' Thoro wcro only sufficient boats to cairv ' tho women and children, and these must J i l l bo saved first i Coolly, but quickly, for ' time pressed, the boats were lowered, ' women auc\ children noiq put uitjoithem,, -, and rowed away.i-Thcre'waa noipanio, i : no wailing of desp-iu at tho Midden * J parting Tho boats could not oftcct n ? landing, tho surf on the coast a couple 1 of miles off being too rough Nc\t * morning a schooner c-imo on tho scene ] and saved those m tlio boats, alsoYa i) few men still clinging to tho topmasts . that 6howcd above water Meantime, (3 for thobo bravo soldiers standing on the ~ , i sloping deck, thoro was practically no " ' liopo, tho boats could not save them, -j and tho water swarmed with sharks ) They could only remain steidy in their > f ranks, waiting patiently for the end I I Within half an hour the water closed 3 oxer the Birkenhead, and with her sank j 454 soldiers and seamen, each of whom ' may bo numbered among the illustrious " 1 dead By command of Queen Victorh i a monument to commemo'rato their \ "heroic constancy and unbroken disci- % I] pline" displayed by officers and mon w'ns *j erected at G-reemvieh Hospital 'i --~~vi