"TO .pettator, April 10tb, 1E352.
A wreck more terrible in its circumstances, and even more fatal in its results, -than that of the Orion on the coast of Scotland, has happened in our colonial seas, off the coast of South Africa.
The Birkenhead steam-frigate, which started from this country some three months since with, troops for the Caffre War, arrived in Simon's Bay, at the Cape, on the 24th February. She put on shore a few invalids, one officer, Mr. Freshfield, and eighteen men, with a considerable number of women and children; and having shipped some horses for the troops, started for East London, near the seat of war, at six o'clock on the evening of the 25th February. The weather was clear and calm, and the coast is well-known; so Commander Salmond, desiring to make a quick voyage, "hugged the shore closely." At two o'clock that same night, the Birkenhead ran on a reef of rocks which is well-known to stretch out from Point Danger, about fifty miles from Simon's Bay; and in twenty minutes she broke into three pieces and went down, carrying hundreds with her to rise no more, and leaving hun- dreds to struggle for life amidst the rocks, the masses of wreck, and the sharks, with boats enough to save only a fraction of their number. . .
From an account of the wreck by Captain Wright of the 91st Regiment: "The order and regularity that prevailed on board, from the time the ship struck till she totally disappeared, far exceeded anything that I thought could be effected by the best discipline; and it is the more to be wondered at, seeing that most of the soldiers had been but a short while in the service. Every one of them did as he was directed, and there was not a murmur or a cry among them until the vessel made her final plunge. I could not name any individual officer who did more than another. All received their orders t and had them carried out, as if the men were embarking instead of going to the bottom: there was - only this difference, that I never saw any embarkation con- ducted with so little noise or confusion."
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