The Awful Sinking of HMS Birkenhead
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
- In 1852 a tragic sinking took place that captivated the world's imagination. HMS Birkenhead, a troopship, opened its hull up on some rocks off South Africa. The hundreds of troops on board stood to and allowed women and children to escape even though it doomed them to a terrible fate as sharks circled in the waters below. This is the horrifying true story of the HMS Birkenhead.
Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels- from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!
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The men standing in formation with more chance of death than in battle is perhaps the greatest show of bravery from the british army at the time.
Could you see british youth behaving like this nowdays
@@jamedmurphy4468I can see them,vaping,drugs,smoking,alcohol and more stuff
@@jamedmurphy4468 No, because nowadays we are all equals and everyone is allowed a fair chance at life.
Bigot.
@@jamedmurphy4468
Some.
What you see on the superfluous surface is not indicative of what will remain if all is put to the test.
Think of Ancient Rome-
were all citizens and soldiers corrupt because the leaders went mad and much of society cast off all restraint?
@@jamedmurphy4468 No, unless they are real Britains.
This definitely gives some much-needed context to the crew's actions during the sinking of the Titanic.
Also it shows how some of the later incidents got the "women and children first" thing horribly WRONg. I forget teh name but there was a disaster where they foolishly put all the women and children SEPERATELY... women and children who couldn't handle the lifeboat and were all lost at sea.
As a native of Birkenhead, she is a staple of our maritime history. Wasn’t expecting this video Mike, so, thank you.
Brave men. A trait so timeless. Courage is being scared but still finding strength to do it. May god have given them a beautiful place in his world. 🦅🇺🇸✝️🫡
Also the “John Laird” shipyard is now called “Cammel Lairds”
Used now as a ship repair/breaker and seconded as a RAF base
I live in Birkenhead too and I've never heard of her before! So, thank you Mike.
@@LprogressivesANDliberals god bless you for loving progressives AND liberals. Jesus was a leftie liberal.
are you therefore a Jedi? From a bloke from Anfield.
Absolutely fascinating! I'd never heard of this before. "Women and children first" has become so entrenched in our values as a society that I always figured it went back a lot longer.
Same, it’s one of those things that you just know to do, I thought it was naturally occurring I never would have guessed that the practice had a starting point.
I ended up finding out where it originated and it came back to this ship. It’s also called the Birkenhead rule.
@@Belligerent_HeraldI guess the reason why the soldiers were so ready to give their lives was that it really is the natural thing to do. If you really think about it, we men are actually quite expendable when it comes to securing the survival of a group/species. A woman can basically only be pregnant with one child at a time. While a man can theoretically father many more children during the same time span. Meaning you need way fewer men than women to sustain the population overall. And I suppose deep inside most of us know that.
“To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you’ve cover to ‘and, an’ leave an’ likin’ to shout;
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!”
Rudyard Kipling
@@dersaegefisch Also, the men would have a better chance of making such a swim to shore than the women and children. There's also the fact that it was the soldiers wifes and children, not some randos.
I see that my arcane ritual to summon Our Friend Mike Brady has succeeded!
The power of One of Our Friend Mike Brady!
The power of Two of Our Friend Mike Brady!
The power of Maaaaannnnyyyy...
of Our Friend Mike Brady!
Thank you for summoning our friend Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs
Does that make us the Brady Bunch?
Lol 😂😂😂@@ronjones-6977
@@ronjones-6977I believe it does, good Lord... 😂
I am so glad that you mentioned sinking of SS La Bourgogne! I was waiting for it.
I think La Bourgogne deserves it's own video.
0.5 survival rate for the women. I would be ashamed to be seen after. Imagine if your man was one of the survivors? I'd rather be a widow.
@@natashaa43The sinking of SS Arctic was something similarly awful. Not a single 1 of the 150 women or children survived. The male crew and passengers that rushed the lifeboats were so disgusting in their actions. How could you live with yourself after doing that.
@@natashaa43 bad, disgusting events, like sinking of La Bourgogne, or ss Arctic, also should be covered
It's so interesting how thoughts have changed over time.
It's basic survival. I withhold judgement until I was in a deadly Situation once and behaved like a hero. I was more disgusted by those who couldn't escape and started assaulting the female passangers.
Honestly, I realized it suddenly today, I love the soft dissonant violin music that plays in the background of these videos. It really gives that sense of being in the 1800s-early 1900's. I can imagine sitting in a ghost town playing/listening to that soft lilting sound, a somber reminder of the times slipped by and the lives lost and forgotten to them.
"Hello, everybody! It's your friend, Mike Brady, from OceanlinerDesigns, and I am currently in your walls!"
Next video, The awful security of this persons house
Joke's on him, those walls are on a sinking ship.
Horses are aquatic icons! Their lungs are so big they naturally float, so they just kick away and swim. Imagine what dog claws do to you when you're swimming, now imagine that force coming from a horse's legs. Any sharks going for a chomp would literally be beat to death on accident because horses are absolutely terrifying. You will never catch me near a horse.
Not "on accident" ... *by accident. ...
I don't really understand _how_ you could be _so_ scared of horses.😢😢😢 They are strong, yes...
They are big, sometimes...
They may lash out when scared, yes of course...
I used to work with horses, in fact I taught horseriding in two South East London Riding Schools, and two more Riding Schools in the County of Kent, (in the south east of England), from 1970...
Working with horses is often hard physical work, but enjoyable, and riding horses is the best (hobby) feeling in the world...
I'd advise anyone to give horseriding a try. There's a saying which sums up the feeling: 'The best way to enjoy life, is to see the world through a horse's ears'.🖖
❤🐴♥️🐴♥️🐴♥️🐴♥️🐴♥️🐴♥️🐴
Awww but they’re gorgeous animals.
Where I live in the wet season, we have flooding regularly, and bull sharks love the horses going into the river.
Does a Waterhorse even have legs?
@@nathanrieben2925
White horses (of the surf) obviously do not have legs, but kelpies may do, if seen as they draw you away to your doom...
This disaster doesn't get the attention it truly deserves. One of just many disasters at sea largely forgotten.
Even when those men knew they were most likely going to die. They still stood together and that just shows you how truly brave they were and may they never be forgotten.
I always hoped that you would do a video about the Birkenhead one day and I really enjoyed watching this video Mike.
It does in South Africa though. There is a memorial to it on the shore there.
@SeanBZA
That's great to hear.
But I feel like she's been largely forgotten compared to other maritime disasters in history, such as the Titanic , Lusitania , Empress of Ireland ectect.
I just hope that more people learn about this disaster and discover how brave those men onboard were even when they realised that they were most likely going to die they would not act like cowards and rush the lifeboats. But calmly just stand together and wait for the end.
Birkenhead wasn't forgotten until much worse and higher profile maritime disasters came along and pushed it into the background, much the same as World War One has been pushed into the background and almost forgotten by World War Two and subsequent events, at least here in the US. It's not fair, but it's just the way it is.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Yeah. It's remembered by many, but it's just one disaster... of so many.
Yet another fantastic documentary from our friend, Mike Brady!
Thank you!
@@OceanlinerDesignsI always forget you have 556k subs. Every time I think of ur channel I honestly think you have like, at LEAST 1M. You deserve more subs, man
Nothing better than watching a mike brady video on a Sunday afternoon.
So glad to hear!
It’s our friend Mike Brady. He’s making interesting videos about something he loves. And it’s GREAT!
Idk if you have covered it yet but you should cover that ship that exploded in Canada. Becoming the largest man made explosion before the nuclear bombs
Halifax, during WW1. It's been covered on other channels, but you're right, I'd love to see it here.
@eyerollthereforeiam1709 that was one very large explosion.
The Longest Johns did a song about it:
ua-cam.com/video/T_5PHU7vQu4/v-deo.html
The Mont Blanc was the name of the ship. She was carrying munitions and was on her way to Halifax to join a convoy to France in 1917 when she collided with the Norwegian ship, the Imo.
The "Mont Blanc" was a French freighter loaded with munitions for the battlefields of France. It collided with the Norwegian relief ship "Imo". On the morning of December 6, 1917, about 1,600 people died instantly. I have photos my grandfather took shortly afterwards.
I think we can all agree that our friend Mike Brady is nothing short of brilliant.
Hey Mike, so since Titanic is surprising free on UA-cam movies, I decided to watch it, I haven't gotten through it all. I'm still at the beginning when they're sending the drones through the ship, but I was surprised to see that porcelain Doll head included in one of the shots. Very cool how insanely accurate that film is.
Cameron is famously obsessed with the Titanic's story to the point he even helped run two expeditions down there
Some of those scenes are real and some are fake, filmed in submerged sets on a soundstage. The shot of the doll head is one of the staged scenes, and is based on a famous photo taken during Dr. Robert Ballard's 1986 expedition when the came across a porcelain doll head in the debris field.
Another great one, Mike. I had never even heard of the Birkenhead, so most certainly had no idea that her sinking was the origin of the whole "women and children first" procedure.
Then you add sharks to the disaster. Wow.
Thanks, again.
In the case of the Birkenhead, saying women and children first would be equivalent to saying “civilians first” and I wonder if that, plus the knowledge that many of the soldiers would have died in combat anyway once they reached their destination made it easier for the soldiers and crew to stand firm. Dying to protect civilians would fit with the military ethos. On a ship full of civilians the situation is less clear.
And didn't he say they were their wives and children?
This is an excellent point.
@@i.b.640Some of them were yes, but that didn't mean they were part of the military, they were still considered civilians.
@@trigirl48 He probably meant it was because the men were not only sacrificing themselves for civillians, but also for their own friends and families.
God bless those brave soldiers who sacrificed themselves for the women and children. Heroes all.
Awesome video Mike
As usual, a terrific & respectful video Mike. The quality of everything you produce is of the highest & most respectful for those lost. Long may you continue my friend.
A splendid retelling of this story. Glad you quoted Kipling -- those words always bring tears to my eyes.
If anything, there was another shipwreck that was also scandalized by its rejection of the Birkenhead Drill: The SS Arctic, just 2 years later in 1854. After colliding with a French fishing steamer off Newfoundland, the American liner infamously was wracked with panic and mutiny as sailors and officers alike stole her lifeboats and left the passengers to die. Of the roughly 400 souls aboard, only 88 survived, mostly crew. All women and children perished.
One has to wonder if the contrast between these two widely publicized shipwrecks, so close to each other, served to color Anglo-American relations for decades to come.
Great video, my friend, Mike Brady! I was wondering if you would ever do a breakdown like this for USS Indianapolis? The very definition of a maritime disaster! Thanks for all the content!
This wreck has always fascinated me. Ever since finding the only book in my high school library, fairly well stocked with disaster accountings, to mention it and the heroic stand of the military men along with the ship's company.
And then today, nearly 50 years later, I find her story so well told by my favorite maritime story-voice just makes my week much brighter!
It's our friend Mike Brady with Oceanliner Designs!
I love it when we get new videos from our friend Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs
Stop saying this dumb shit!
3 minutes ago is wild bro, glad to see another video from our dear friend Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs
I always knew about the basics of HMS Birkenhead and that great courage was shown, but this gives me a whole new respect that is unbelievable discipline.
Another awesome video from our friend Mike Brady thanks for this and great job keep them coming!
'To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout;
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!'
@@DocHorror666 is this a poem or song? What is the name? TYIA
@@loraweems8712 Kipling "Soldier an' Sailor too" Put that in your search and read the whole thing.
And if you like it, also read "Tommy".
@@mbvoelker8448 To this day I cannot hear the words 'Tommy this and Tommy that' in any other voice than the gruff old intonations of my grandad.
@@mbvoelker8448 *IF!* 🫶
First among equals, along with Tommy, Soldier and sailor too, Snarlyeow...
As I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the Crocodile,
I seed a man on a man-o'-war got up in the Reg'lars' style.
'E was scrapin' the paint from off of 'er plates, an' I sez to 'im, "'Oo are you?"
Sez 'e, "I'm a Jolly-'Er Majesty's Jolly-soldier an' sailor too!"
Now 'is work begins by Gawd knows when, and 'is work is never through;
'E isn't one o' the reg'lar Line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew.
'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite-soldier an' sailor too!
An', after I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds of things,
Like landin' 'isself with a Gatlin' gun to talk to them 'eathen kings;
'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with the deck on a slew,
An' 'e sweats like a Jolly-'Er Majesty's Jolly-soldier an' sailor too!
For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar don't know, nor do-
You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead, to paddle 'is own canoe-
'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse-soldier an' sailor too.
We've fought 'em in trooper, we've fought 'em in dock, and drunk with 'em in betweens,
When they called us the seasick scull'ry-maids, an' we called 'em the Ass-Marines;
But, when we was down for a double fatigue, from Woolwich to Bernardmyo,
We sent for the Jollies-'Er Majesty's Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
They think for 'emselves, an' they steal for 'emselves, and they never ask what's to do,
But they're camped an' fed an' they're up an' fed before our bugle's blew.
Ho! they ain't no limpin' procrastitutes-soldier an' sailor too.
You may say we are fond of an 'arness-cut, or 'ootin' in barrick-yards,
Or startin' a Board School mutiny along o' the Onion Guards; (1)
But once in a while we can finish in style for the ends of the earth to view,
The same as the Jollies-'Er Majesty's Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
They come of our lot, they was brothers to us; they was beggars we'd met an' knew;
Yes, barrin' an inch in the chest an' the arm, they was doubles o' me an' you;
For they weren't no special chrysanthemums-soldier an' sailor too!
To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout;
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, (2) soldier an' sailor too!
We're most of us liars, we're 'arf of us thieves, an' the rest are as rank as can be,
But once in a while we can finish in style (which I 'ope it won't 'appen to me).
But it makes you think better o' you an' your friends, an' the work you may 'ave to do,
When you think o' the sinkin' Victorier's (3) Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
Now there isn't no room for to say ye don't know-they 'ave proved it plain and true-
That whether it's Widow, or whether it's ship, Victorier's work is to do,
An' they done it, the Jollies-'Er Majesty's Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
What a beautiful yet harrowing story of courage and self-sacrifice. Thank you so much for uploading, Mike!
For Mike's sake it's a shame everything on this channel has to be framed through the Titanic just so he'll get more views because this stuff has more than enough merit to stand up on its own and it more than deserves to he watched by everyone. Keep up the good work, you and your team are doing great Mike!
I think it’s also because we all really love Titanic.
Meh, he only used it as a framework for what those in 1912 could use as a reference like we do today with Titanic. It's not like he click baited that title/thumbnail and talked about it for literally more than 20 seconds lol
Born and grew up in algoa bay and never heard about this tragedy. Thank you for the video.
That uncharted rock had a grudge against someone. Those men, to stand firm and yet see your demise wash around your feet. I wonder what they thought, what last words were written upon their hearts. I do hope their families felt pride upon hearing the tale. There is a special place in heaven for heroes such as these.
Another great video, Mr. Brady. Love from Ireland
Excellent video. I was completely unaware of the story of the HMS Birkenhead. Thanks so much!
You and this channel mean so much to me, thank you for all these cool stories!
Your videos are the best.
They are detailed . The visual effects in your videos, make me feel like I was there.
Your knowledge vast.
Thanks for the kind words!
Wow, what a tragic story. Thankyou for your awesome content Mike.
I once again learned something new. Thank you, Mike and crew
I imagine that the officer keeping a cool head went a long way to maintaining order. Panic is infectious and once it breaks out it can be almost impossible to get the situation back under control. The sinking of the Birkenhead was compared with the sinking of the SS Arctic where not a single woman or child survived. Captain Luce very quickly lost control and the crew and able-bodied passengers rushed the boats, contributing to the loss of life. The soldiers on the Birkenhead may have been inexperienced but they understood what was expected of them and how their actions could affect the survival of others.
You should do a video on the search for the wreck of the titanic. And the many crazy ideas of how to raise the ship.
Another fine production, chock full of information and drama, without making it melodrama. And a reminder how sailing used to be hazardous. Thanks for the excellent historical work! (Loved the sea sounds at the end)
Great video I never knew about this ship R.I.P. to all of those who went down with the ship
Glad you have highlighted the story of HMS Birkenhead. A great example of discipline in an extreme situation
Given enough time, this channel would eventually cover every ship that ever sank.
It was very moving hearing about the courage and discipline of the soldiers, crew, and marines. This was true greatness amidst a great tragedy.
Thanks Mike, well done. I had not heard this story before.
No matter what ship he's talking about it's always nice to watch a video from our friend Mike Brady
Thank you, Mike. Brilliant video.
Hope you're doing well.
You told the story beautifully Mike. Well done.
Watching this in Birkenhead right now.
Always good work from you, amigo.
Thank you for sharing this untold story, which is reason to retell it. Your narration made it seem like I was there.
Thank you.. nice job
Great story. Wonderful video.
Finally a Doku from you to this historic tragady. I hoped for one since I learned about it.
Thank you.
With best regards from Germany 🇩🇪
15:48 wow… a trait so timeless and heroic. Giving your life for your fellow human being. May god have given you a place in his kingdom. Thanks soldier 🦅🇺🇸✝️🫡
Wrong flag
Thank you, our friend Mike Brady!
Another video well done, friend Mike Brady.
19:25 I waited with anticipation to hear those three words. Another triumph of a production: informative, compelling, and interesting.
,
Well hello! I love watching your videos mike!
My boyhood introduction to HMS Birkenhead was via Rudyard Kipling.
I could listen to Mike Brady read the phone book (anyone remember phone books?) Instead I get treated to another fascinating video on a topic I never knew was so interesting. Thanks Mike!
Always a good day when our friend, Mike Brady, uploads.
Thankyou so much Mike for telling this story .As a young boy in the 1950s i would often stand in front of the painting by Thomas Hemy displayed in Slatey Rd Art Gallery; Birkenhead and wonder at the bravery of the young men who put others before themselves.
That is an absolutely incredible story.
This was a really interesting one! I had not thought to wonder where or when the order for women and children first had begun. Thank you!
Another excellent, well researched and narrated video.
Awesome work.
Thank you for your podcast excellent research
Fantastic story and well told 🙏❤️
Supposedly the majority of sharks claim humans taste like chicken.
Chicken of the Sea? They don't like the taste and spit us out mostly. Group attacks are another matter, the victim is usually a buffet.
Fantastic video as always Mike. :) if you are looking for another shipping disaster to cover, then look into the story of the Dunedin star, which ran aground on the skeleton coast during ww2, and the passengers had to be rescued by a daring land mission where soldiers drove thousands of miles from south Africa up the coast. A rescue plane even landed to pick them up but couldn't take off again so became further victims that needed rescuing
Top work as usual Mike
That is a very upsetting story that I can't believe I've never heard. Terrible. Tragic. Effing sharks.
Always learning something new here 👍
This was really interesting 👍🏻
Great work Mike
Beautiful story and inspiring one about true heroes. Example to follow both in discipline and in selflessness.
my late father had a book of tragedies. These included Titanic, Lusitania ,Princess Alice and the Birkenhead . Cannot imagine the outcome being much better if Wireless existed in those days.
Thanks Mike
Awesome video. Breathe taking bravery.
This was an informative well told story. Thank you for sharing. Jim Kensington Maryland
Very Good dear Sir... a very good Essay... Thank you...
What a show of British military discipline. Thanks for sharing this story, I hadn’t heard of it, and I’ll be researching further.
What's impressive is that the phrase has become so synonymous with protection that women and children first was heard being said in the Costa Concordia disaster, over 150 years after Birkenhead
Didn’t the crew cut and run on the Costa Concordia? I thought the captain left the ship before the passengers?
@@jasonmaccoul about the same time as the crew, to be frank. As soon as the first boats were off, the majority were also on dryland. The main voices saying "W&C first" were passengers and some of the more honorable crew that stayed to the end
@@jasonmaccoul The captain cut and run, and later got his ass chewed out by Captain Gregorio. The crew itself, both the seamen and the entertainment staff, started acting on their own initiative to begin evacuation procedures shortly after the list began and over half an hour before the order to abandon ship was given. That said, there was a perception in initial reports that the ship’s crew were not helpful or weren’t trained. A major contributing factor in this would have been that initial confusion in the hour between the ground strike and the issuing of the evacuation order, wherein much of the staff was awaiting orders, trying to keep passengers calm, and trying to get information on the actual state of the ship in spite of the captain’s initial efforts to deny the gravity of the situation.
Excellent work here as always, Mike! If I may make a request for a video, would you be willing to do one on the Californian?
Living in Vale Town, and especially as we are just recovering from some epic storms and floods coming off the Atlantic, I’ve been trying to imagine being on a ship in these sea’s that round the Cape. Must have been bloody terrifying.
Interesting story thank you.
That was a era in the British Empire when being called a coward was a fate far worse than death.
You should do a video on the evolution of how ships were painted. I've always wondered how ships were painted especially giant ones such as the superliners of the 20s and 30s. Plus it seems like an extremely dangerous job having to paint a massive liner. I also wonder how things like Titanic or Olympics yellow stripe would've been painted, they couldn't just use masking tape? right? Anyways I think it would be an interesting video idea Mike!
Another thing to remember is that the boats were filled with the wives and children of a lot of the soldiers who stood by so that their loved ones would survive. It was their women and children not just random passengers. They did their duty as soldiers yes, but the request was made of fathers and husbands so that the boats would not be swamped. That is probably what was foremost in their minds that made them follow the request even though it wasn't an order
I had a distant relative on the Birkenhead. I know he was one of the soldiers on board, but any remaining details my grandmother took to her grave.
All of the time I lived in Birkenhead I never heard about this vessel and of her immensely honourable Crew!
To not panic and to retain one's honour, dignity and composure in the face of certain death whilst ensuring that vulnerable women and children passengers were able to get safely into the Lifeboats marked these men as being exceptional.
Thank you for producing this excellent video.
😻🫶🥰 *_LOVE_* that poem, one of Kipling's best!
_Soldier an’ Sailor too_
As I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the Crocodile,
I seed a man on a man-o'-war got up in the Reg'lars' style.
'E was scrapin' the paint from off of 'er plates, an' I sez to 'im, "'Oo are you?"
Sez 'e, "I'm a Jolly-'Er Majesty's Jolly-soldier an' sailor too!"
Now 'is work begins by Gawd knows when, and 'is work is never through;
'E isn't one o' the reg'lar Line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew.
'E's a kind of a giddy harumfrodite-soldier an' sailor too!
An', after I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds of things,
Like landin' 'isself with a Gatlin' gun to talk to them 'eathen kings;
'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with the deck on a slew,
An' 'e sweats like a Jolly-'Er Majesty's Jolly-soldier an' sailor too!
For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar don't know, nor do-
You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead, to paddle 'is own canoe-
'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolouse-soldier an' sailor too.
We've fought 'em in trooper, we've fought 'em in dock, and drunk with 'em in betweens,
When they called us the seasick scull'ry-maids, an' we called 'em the Ass-Marines;
But, when we was down for a double fatigue, from Woolwich to Bernardmyo,
We sent for the Jollies-'Er Majesty's Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
They think for 'emselves, an' they steal for 'emselves, and they never ask what's to do,
But they're camped an' fed an' they're up an' fed before our bugle's blew.
Ho! they ain't no limpin' procrastitutes-soldier an' sailor too.
You may say we are fond of an 'arness-cut, or 'ootin' in barrick-yards,
Or startin' a Board School mutiny along o' the Onion Guards; (1)
But once in a while we can finish in style for the ends of the earth to view,
The same as the Jollies-'Er Majesty's Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
They come of our lot, they was brothers to us; they was beggars we'd met an' knew;
Yes, barrin' an inch in the chest an' the arm, they was doubles o' me an' you;
For they weren't no special chrysanthemums-soldier an' sailor too!
To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin' to shout;
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, (2) soldier an' sailor too!
We're most of us liars, we're 'arf of us thieves, an' the rest are as rank as can be,
But once in a while we can finish in style (which I 'ope it won't 'appen to me).
But it makes you think better o' you an' your friends, an' the work you may 'ave to do,
When you think o' the sinkin' Victorier's (3) Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
Now there isn't no room for to say ye don't know-they 'ave proved it plain and true-
That whether it's Widow, or whether it's ship, Victorier's work is to do,
An' they done it, the Jollies-'Er Majesty's Jollies-soldier an' sailor too!
"The old Birkenhead Drill".
A fascinating story.
“Women and children only!!!!”
“I HAVE A CHILD!!! I HAVE A CHILD!!!!”
Hi Mike Brady, I congratulate you for your videos, I follow you from Italy, I wanted to recommend a very famous and dramatic Italian naval disaster, the sinking of the Principessa Mafalda, considered the greatest Italian naval disaster, a very fascinating story.
Glory to the fallen. May God rest their souls.
Thank you for this video, sir.