The sinking of a ship named after a town in Merseyside hundreds of years ago was a historic first thanks to the courage of the soldiers onboard.
On Thursday, February 26 1852, the HMS Birkenhead, named after the town in which it was built, was carrying civilians and soldiers to South Africa's Algoa Bay from one of the country's current capital cities, Cape Town, when it was shipwrecked just miles off the coast.
It was a tragedy that saw hundreds drown, many in their sleep and many trapped within its iron hull, though the extent of human life lost could've been far worse if not for the bravery of the soldiers on board, whose courage has not been forgotten for hundreds of years since.
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The ship had hit a rocky outcrop in the aptly-named Danger Point. Captain Salmond, in command, had received orders to reach their destination as soon as possible, so that the soldiers could be supplied for the efforts of the colonial British military that was waging a war against the native Xhosa Kingdom.
Captain Salmond had ordered the ship to hug the coastline, and so the ship was sailing only three miles from the coast when hit the rocky outcrop of Danger Point. It was 2am in the morning and only the duty watch were awake.
Water flooded through the gaping hole in the lower troop deck, filling it instantly and drowning hundreds of soldiers as they slept. Soon those who could assembled on deck and the civilian population of the ship were made aware of what had happened.
Captain Salmond then ordered the ship to back up off the rocky outcrop, though this only caused more water to gush in, pulling the ship forward and once again colliding with the rock. Emergency rockets that had been fired received no response.
Captain Salmond soon ordered the abandonment of the ship: for the lifeboats to be dropped and those who could swim - soldier or civilian - to take to the water. However, Leitenant-Colonel Seton, who was in charge of the military force on the ship, ordered the men assembled on the deck to stand fast, in rank on the deck.
His order prevented further chaos from breaking out and the lifeboats from becoming swamped. It would become known as the "women and children first" drill, or the Birkenhead Drill as named by poet Rudyard Kipling in memory of the soldiers who stood fast until the very end, a majority dying so that the ship's civilian population had the best chance they could to survive.
The ship was said to have split in two and sunk before the brave soldiers even twitched. It only took 25 minutes for the HMS Birkenhead to sink.
193 people survived the wreck. 441, mostly soldiers and officers, died.
A memorial to those who were lost is on the wall of St Mary's Church in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk. Another memorial was raised in 2014 on Woodside Promenade, Birkenhead.
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