The Orderly Death of the Birkenhead (1852)
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- The Birkenhead sank beneath the feet of men who knew it was doomed, but stayed anyway, inspiring a nation and artists alike. There were no more boats to launch, the shore was miles away and most of them did not know how to swim, but still, they waited as the small boat full of women and children pulled away to safety. It gave a name to the act of allowing women and children to leave a sinking ship first, it would be known as the Birkenhead Drill
Ship Name: HMS Birkenhead
Launched: 1845
Nationality: English
Ship Type: Wooden Steamship, Twin Paddlewheel
Tonnage: 1400
Sank: 1852
Place Sank: Danger Point South Africa
Reason For Sinking: Struck Rock
Lives Lost: 444
Sources:
passengers.his...
www.historic-u...
www.nam.ac.uk/...
www.suffolkregi...
www.britannica...
samilitaryhisto...
www.sundaypost...
books.google.c...
capeinfo.com/m...
archive.org/de...
#BritishNavy #NavyHistory #Heroism #Sacrafice #Shipwreck #BritishHistory #SouthAfricanHistory #SteamShip #Survival #Disaster #ShipHistory #HistoryPodcast #Podcast #Birkenhead #SinkingShip #BritishArmy #ArmyHistory
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Found this channel this morning and subscribed immediately. This is third video viewed. Good work the time put into this presentation is appreciated.
Thanks again for another great work. I appreciate your effort more with every video. Please know your bringing a good measure of peace and joy to a place and person where both can be in short supply. Cheers.
That our videos bring joy is all we could ever ask for. It is fun sharing our love of history and ships with others.
But often times and shipwrecks that whole thing about women and children first goes right out the window. When self-preservation kicks in.
Oh yes, we have many examples of that. The Mafalda is in particular a harsh reminder that without someone reminding everyone to stay calm it quickly becomes every man for himself.
@@theshipwreckarchives Oceanos, Costa Concordia (cough cough)
My ❤ 😢
How do you not know how to swim while serving on a ship… I guess things were different back then.
I know that it used to be considered bad luck to know how to swim, though I don't know if that was the reason so few people on the Birkenhead knew. It is possible it was just an inaccessibility of ways to learn.
Also, clothing was many layers, bulky, and often wool was involved. Michael Phelps would have difficulty swimming dressed in sailor's attire of the day. If you consider the water temperature having a direct impact on survival time in the water due to hypothermia. Might as well maintain some dignity and honor in your last moments. Civilization depends on such considerations. Every man fights to suppress the animals we truly are for the sake of civility. The display of such battles rarely so prominently observed as on a sinking ship in fridged water with scant means of survival.
You would be surprised how many US Marines have no idea how to swim...
@@fredgervinm.p.3315i thought marines are rare on warships these days
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This shipwreck is where the term 'Tommy Shark' came from for the Great White.
oooh, more shipwreck archives! excellent.
I'm from Birkenhead !
Hey mate I guess you are my sister channel. Cant wait to watch some of these as I have not heard of them.
Hello! Our channel is less than a year old so I hope you will excuse us for any of our flaws. I will admit we are not familiar with your channel but we will definitely check it out.
As one eagerly studying historiography, I find these accounts most interesting, especially in how myths and tales of heroism come about.
Often the descriptions of events are left to a very few survivors, and in the case of people marooned they are even more in the hands of not necessarily entirely truthful sources.
As far as the Birkenhead Drill goes, the heroism seems a little like making virtue of necessity.
With basically no lifeboats and with around 630 people on board, making special allowance for 21 is almost ridiculously cheep.
The drill became subsequently the way to abandon a sinking ship - although it other cases turned out to be a downright stupid idea - as when rowing a lifeboat to shore and secure the remaining passengers by a rope - as women and children were unable to.
I tend to regard the 'heroism at sea' a very British narrative. The fates of the Meduse or the Batavia tell of very other drills.
Whether Englishmen are more human and gentlemen-like than the French and the Dutch, I cannot say. But I believe the English to have a stronger need for the heroic narrative. The manner the discouraging reports made by the Franklin Expedition search parties were put down, is to me a perfect example of this.
I think every nation and every culture has a deep seated need for a hero epic, and stories of sacrifice. In the case of women and children first, I had read elsewhere that the first documented instance of "women and children first" during a shipwreck was actually on an American vessel, but it is possibly an even older idea that was simply not documented. It does help to give order and calm to a ship evacuation, which is generally a very chaotic affair, and therefore can be seen to serve an important purpose.
For a rather thought provoking read, may I suggest this article? www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1207156109
Arniston - fishing village ?
Most of the documents we were drawing from for this episode were the first hand accounts and early publications about the wreck and they left the village unnamed.
Port of Durban is about a 1200km away from cape Town.. I stay in Durban.. Not far from Port.. I work in Port and on ships actually and can tell u port of Durban is more than a 100 miles away from Capetown
I fully accept that this might be another example of the haphazard grasp of geography of people in the early and mid 1800s. We are only ever as good as our sources unfortunately. Though we try to ensure our sources are the most reliable we can find, they are by no means always perfect.
Interesting side note, Ensign Lucas went on to become the chief magistrate of Durban.
@@theshipwreckarchives no problem bro.. Yes I believe his house is not to far from where I stay that's if the information is correct.. There are a lot of interesting shipwreck from Durban to Namibia.. U should have a look.. I think u will get quite a few videos for your channel