LOSS OF THE "BIRKENHEAD" STEAMFRIGATE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 92, 9 October 1852, Page 9

LOSS OF THE "BIRKENHEAD" STEAMFRIGATE.

A clear account of the wreck and its sequel is given by Captain Wright, of the Ninety-first Regiment, in an official report to the Commandant of Cape Town :— " Simon's Bay, Ist March, 1852. " Sir, —It is with feelings of the deepest regret that I have to announce to you the loss of her Majesty's steamer " Birkenhead," which took place on a rock about two and a half or three miles off Point Danger, at 2 a.m., 26th February. " The sea was smooth at the time, and the vessel was steaming at the rate of eight and a half knots an hour. She struck the rock, and it penetrated through her bottom just aft of the foremast. The rush of water was so great that there is no doubt that most of the men in the lower troop-deck were drowned in their hammocks. The rest of the men and all the officers appeared on] deck ; when Major Seaton called all the officers about him, and impressed on them the necessity of preservingorder and silence among the men. He directed me to take and have executed whatever orders the commander might give me. Sixty men were immediately put on to the chain-pumps on the lower after-deck, and told off in three reliefs ; sixty men were put on to the tackles of the paddle-box boats; and the remainder of the men were brought on to the poop, so as to ease the fore-part of the ship. She was at this time rolling heavily. The commander ordered the horses to be pitched out of the port-gang-way, and the cutter to be got ready for the women and children, who had all been collected under the poop awning. As soon as the horses were got over the side, the women and children were passed into the cutter, under charge of Mr. Richards, master's assistant; the boat then stood off about 150 yards. Just after they were out of the ship, the entire bow broke off at the foremast, the bowsprit going up in the air towards the fore topmast, and the funnel went over the side, carrying away the starboard paddle-box and boat. The paddle-box boat capsized when being lowered. The large boat •in the centre of the ship could not be got at. " It was about twelve or fifteen minutes after she struck that the bow broke off. The men then all went up on the poop, and in about five minutes more the vessel broke in two, crosswise, just abaft the engine-room, and the stern-part immediately filled and went down. A few men jumped off just before she did so, but the greater number remained to the last, and so did every officer belonging to the troops. All the men I put on the tackles, I fear, were crushed when the funnel fell; and the men - and officers below at the pumps could not, I think, have reached the deck before the vessel broke up and went down. The survivors clung-, some to the rigging of the mainmast, part of which was out of the water, and others got hold of floating pieces of wood. I think there must have been about 200 on the drift-wood. I was on a large piece along with five others, and we picked up nine or ten more. The swell carried the wood in the direction of Point Danger. As soon as it got to the weeds and breakers, finding that it would not support all that were on it, I jumped off and swam on shore; and when the others, and also those that were on the other pieces of wood, reached the shore, we proceeded into the country, to try to find a habitation of any sort, where we could obtain shelter. Many of the men were naked, and almost all without shoes. Owing to the country being covered with thick thorny bushes, our progress was slow; but after walking till about three p.m., having reached hind about twelve, we came to where a waggon was outspanned, and the driver of it directed us to a small bay, where there is a hut of a fisherman. The bay is called Stanford's Cove. We arrived there about sunset 5 and as the men had nothing to

eat, I went on to a farm-house, about eight or nine miles from the Cove, and sent back provisions for that day. The next morning I sent another day's provisions ; and the men were removed up to a farm of Captain Smales's, about twelve or fourteen miles up the country. Lieutenant Girardot, of the Forty-third, and Cornet Bond, of the 12th Lancers, accompanied this party, which amounted to sixty-eight men, including eighteen sailors. " I then went down to the coast; and during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I examined the rocks for more than twenty miles, in the hope of finding some men who might have drifted in. I fortunately fell in with the crew of a whale-boat that is employed sealing on Dyer's Island. I got them to take the boat outside the seaweed, while I went along the shore. The seaweed on the coast is very thick, and of immense length, so that it would have caught most of the drift-wood. Happily, the boat picked up two men, and I also found two. Although they were all much exhausted, two of them having been in the water thirty-eight hours, they were all right the next clay, except a few bruises. It was eighty-six hours" on Sunday afternoon when I left the coast since the wreck had taken place ; and as I had carefully examined every part of the rocks, and also sent the whale-boat over to Dyer's Island, I can safely assert that when I left there was not a living soul on the coast of those that had been on board the ill-fated " Birkenhead." " The order and regularity that prevailed on board, from the time the ship struck till she totally disappeared, far exceeded anything that I thought could be effected by the best discipline ; and it is the more to be wondered at, seeing that most of the soldiers had been but a short time in the service. Every one did as he was directed, and there was not a murmur or a cry among them until the vessel made her final plunge. I could not name any individual officer who did more than another. All received their orders, and had them carried out, as if the men were embarking instead of going to the bottom: there was only this difference, that I never saw any embarkation conducted with so little noise or confusion. " One fact I cannot omit mentioning. When the vessel was just about going down, the Commander called out, ' All those that can swim, jump overboard and make for the boats.' Lieutenant Girardot and myself were standing on the stern-part of the poop. We begged the men not to do as the Commander said, as the boat with the women must be swamped. Not more than three made the attempt." The official report gives a total loss of 438 out of 630 on board : all the women and children were saved in the boats. A court-martial has been held on the surviving officers, who have, however, been acquitted, as the senior officers all perished in the unfortunate vessel, and no accurate account could, in consequence, be gathered of the disaster. The sharks, which abounded, made sad havoc with the unfortunate men in the water.