BIRKENHEAD DRILL

The Birkenhead was a troopship. In February 1851 more than a hundred and fifty years ago it wad carrying soldiers and their families to South Africa. There were six hundred and thirty people on the ship. Of these, one hundred and seventy were inexperienced men, most of whom had joimed the army only recently. The officers were few. For the most part, they, too, were young and inexperienced. Sixty-four kilometres from Cape Town in South Africa, there was a rock in the sea, Which was then unknown and undiscovered. It was not shown in any of the maths of the sea, Is if it were a wide creature of the ocean, lying in wait for its prey. The unfortunate prey was fast approaching it, all unconscious of its fate. It was troopship Birkenhead. Whatever it was thinking of at that moment, it had no idea that it was fated to suffer early destruction. Meanwhile, the people on the ship were awakened from a peaceful sleep by the shock. They came out from their cabins and tried to make their way to the deck. But wherever they went they found the ship damaged. They crawled among the wrecked pieces of the unfortunate ship and at last reached the deck. Very few knew what had happened, but they all knew that it was something terrible. When the ship split into two, the front half soon sank into the waters and disappeared. But fortunately, all the people on the ship managed to reach the remaining half of the split ship, which was still floating on the water. They had a narrow escape from a watery grave. Whatever awaited them in the immediate future, for the time being they were safe. When the ship struck against the rock, most of the life-boats were damaged or destroyed. Only three of these boats were in a useful condition.

Six hundred and thirty people to be saved ! As against that, there were only three lifeboats, each of which could carry only sixty passengers ! Only a hundred and eighty would find room in these three boats ! The wrecked ship could not last much longer. Any passenger who could not find a place in one of the lifeboats faced certain death -- death by drowning and worse. For the seas around were alive with sharks, whose cruel, fightful jaws awaited the unfortunate ones who fell into the waves. The cruelbenemy was to be seen wherever the eye was turned. There was very little chance for anyone who found himself in these dangerous waters. Six hundred and thirty people on the wrecked ship and room in the lifeboats for only one hundred and eighty ! One would have expected a panic. For life is sweet. Men and women, struggling for their lives, all struggling to get into one lifeboats, would surely have caused a panic. In the resultinf confusion, men, women and children might have been crushed under foot. They might have pushed one another into the sea in their wild efforts to make their way to the boats. The boats might have been overloaded amd sunk under the weight. Such things had happened before. Whoever was the stronger had won his way to the boats. The weakest - women and children, the old and the sick - had often been left to their fate. If such a thing had happened on the happened on the Birkenhead, not one out of the six hundred and thirty people woud have been saved. But there was no panic on the Birkenhead. Some confusion there was bound to be. 'Out with the boats and let us away ! ' someone may have cried. Whoever it was who had cried thus, it was not one of the young soldiers. There was perfect discipline and great heroism among the troops.

'Women and children first,' was the order of the day. The commander of the troops called on his men to gather on deck in proper drill order. Line upon line of red-coated soldiers with set faces, stood in their ranks calmly , awaiting their fate. Meanwhile, the lifeboats had been lowered. When all the women and children had filled the boats, there would be room for only a very few others. The men stood still and watched as the women and children were placed in the boats. As the boats sailed away, they saw the red lines of uniformed soldiers standing at attention as if they were at their daily drill. The ship's company with their captian stood by the soldiers and went down with them as they wrecked ship sank into the water. A few of these struggled to the surface of the sea and held on to pieces of the wreckage until a rescue ship arrived on the scene and picked them up. But four-hundred and thirty-six men went down forever. Every one was loyal to himself and to his duty. The commander of the troops was hanging on to some wreckage when he saw two young sailors struggling in the water. He pushed the wreckage towards them and all three held on to it. Then the commander realized that if he hing on with the boys, the wreckage was not strong enough to support all three. So he let go his hold and sank into the sea.

The one officer of the troops who was rescued, reported: ' The determination of all hands was far more than I thought could be effected by the best discipline