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The HMS Birkenhead
Gansbaai - Garden Route
Remembrance Plaque which is fixed to the lighthouse wall
Ghost tours
Call 082 255 8509 or email sdfourie@telkomsa.net
The Birkenhead is a ship that was wrecked off the coast
of South Africa near Danger Point .
It was a paddle steamer of 1400 tons and was
launched in December 1845.
It belonged to the Royal Navy and was built to
be a warship. She later had a poop deck fitted and
then she became a troop carrier.
In January 1852 she set sail from Cork in Ireland for South Africa.
After calling in at the Royal Navy base in Simonstown
to replenish supplies and to take on troops and horses
that were needed to fight in what was called “The Kaffir War “
that was raging in the Eastern Cape she set sail for
Port Elizabeth on the 25th of February 1852.
In the early morning of the 26th of February the Birkenhead
struck a reef off Danger Point and immediately began to sink.
At the time there were 638 people on board and these
included women and children.
(The exact number of people on board cannot be agreed
as the ship's papers went down with the ship and different
references quote different numbers of people on board)
Many of the soldiers were sleeping below decks when the ship
struck and they were drowned in their bunks,
Those that managed to get on deck formed up in their ranks
under the command of Lt Colonel Seton. He begged them to
stand still on the deck to allow the women and children
to be placed in the boats and to be taken to safety.
He knew that if the troops were allowed to make a bid to
save themselves they would go for the boats and many of
the women and children might be drowned.
As it was there were only eight lifeboats on board and
only three of them were able to be launched.
The horses that were on board were blindfolded and thrown
overboard in an attempt to save them. Some of them swam to safety.
The sharks savaged most of the horses and many of the
people that ended up in the sea.
What is however important is that of the troops who were
lined up on deck not one panicked but stood their ground
as the ship sank beneath them.
This last stand has become known as the” Birkenhead Drill.”
The Memorial Table at Danger Point. The groove in the centre of the
table indicates the position where the Birkenhead sank out at sea.
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Contact Details
Email Geoff Fairman
6 Bothma Street, Monte Vista 7460 South Africa
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