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On 25 February 1852 the HMS Birkenhead set sail from Simon's Town for Algoa Bay carrying 643 soldiers, and their wives and children. Sadly this would be the ship's final voyage.
In order to cut down the journey time, Captain Salmond decided to keep close to the shoreline. On the following morning at about 2am, the ship ran straight into an unchartered rock just 3 kilometres from the shore near Gansbaai. In calm conditions the rock is barely visible, and so had not been mapped before.
The ship quickly began flooding and breaking apart. Some soldiers were assigned to the pumps, while others tried to get the lifeboats free. Unfortunately due to bad maintenance only a few of the lifeboats could be launched, and there was not enough space for everyone.
And so in order to make sure the women and children survived, the soldiers stood back and let them take the lifeboats first. This is where the expression "women and children first" started. It later became known as the Birkenhead Drill and is still taught and used by the navy today.
One survivor later said "Almost everybody kept silent, indeed nothing was heard, but the kicking of the horses and the orders of Salmond, all given in a clear firm voice."
Before the ship went down, the horses were driven into the sea in the hope that they could swim to the shore. Once the ship had gone down, some of the soldiers attempted to swim to shore. Some made it, but most died either from exposure to the cold, from the sharks in the water, or from trying to make it ashore and being driven into the rocks.
In all only 193 people survived, as well as the 9 horses that were on board.
The incident went down in naval history as one of great bravery. The Birkenhead Drill became standard practice with “women and children first” being the response to the evacuation of sinking ships.
It's believed that there is a large amount of gold that was sunk with the ship as the Birkenhead was carrying a military payroll which was about £240,000 in gold coins. A number of dives have been made at the site of the wreck but only a few coins have been recovered.
The story of the Birkenhead has been immortalised in the words of Rudyard Kipling.
"But to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,
An' they done it, the Jollies - 'Er Majesty's Jollies - soldier an' sailor too!
Their work was done when it 'adn't begun; they was younger nor me an' you;
Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the screw,
So they stood an' was still to the Birken'ead drill, soldier an' sailor too"
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