The HMS Birkenhead, also known as HMS troop transport ship Birkenhead or Steam Frigate Birkenhead, was one of the first combined sailing and steamships with an iron hull and also one of the last paddle steamers launched for the Royal Navy on 30 December 1845.
She was carrying several soldiers to fight in the Frontier War in South Africa but also women and children when she ran onto an unmarked reef in the night of 26 February 1852. She had previously stopped at Simonās Bay, now Simonstown on the Cape in South Africa and was on her way to her final destination when she ran onto the reef at Danger Point 2 miles away from the coast.
Loss of Her Majestys steam-ship Birkenhead on danger point Cape of Good Hope, by London News 1852
A jagged rock (now known as Birkenhead Rock) tore into the bottom of the hull, immediately flooding the front part of the lower deck and drowning more than 100 soldiers sleeping in their hammocks. The survivors of the initial impact and flooding gathered on deck - some barefoot and in their nightclothes, othersĀ naked. Captain Robert Salmond knew the situation was hopeless, although they tried to inform the coast by light signals. Several attempts were made to lower the lifeboats, but survivors later said that the davits were not functioning properly due to lack of maintenance and a thick layer of paint and rust that was blocking the mechanism. That night, under a clear starry sky, the great naval tradition of āwomen and children firstā was introduced, when finally two cutters and a gig were launched and the seven women and thirteen children were rowed from the wreck to safety.
The Wreck of the Birkenhead by Charles Dixon 1901
The horses were cut loose and thrown overboard. Only then did Captain Salmond call out to the men that anyone who could swim must save themselves by jumping into the sea and going to the boats.
The Wreck of the Birkenhead by Thomas Hemy 1892
Lieutenant Colonel Seton, the soldierās commanding officer, quickly realised that such an onslaught would mean that the lifeboats could be flooded, endangering the lives of the women and children on board. He drew his sword and ordered his men to stand firm. The untried soldiers did not move, even when the ship broke in two and the brave company slid down into the waves.
Twenty-five minutes after hitting the reef, the Birkenhead sank, only the topmast and sail remaining visible above the water, and about fifty men were still holding on to it. The sea was full of men desperately searching for something that could swim. Death by drowning came quickly to many of them, but the more unfortunate were captured by the great white sharks.
Divers over a paddle wheel shaft on the wreck of the HMS Birkenhead, Gansbaai, by Peter Southwood 2011Ā
The next morning the schooner Lioness reached the lifeboats and rescued the people on board, after which she went to the scene of the disaster, where she reached the wreck in the afternoon and picked up the remaining survivors. Of the 634 people on board the Birkenhead, only 193 were rescued.