Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/203

 12 a. vin. FEB. 20, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 161 LONDON, FEBRUARY <?/;, 1921. CONTENTS. No. loO. 3IOTES : Loss of Her Majesty* Steamer Birkenhead, 161 Aldeburgh : Extracts from Chamber! tins' Account-Book, 1625-1649, 163 Nathaniel Field's Vv ork in the "Beaumont and Fletcher" Pliys, 164 Harborne or Harbron Family, 167. QUERIES: Benjamin Choyce Sowden (or Sowdon;, " Eminent English Poet " Syriac MS. : Life and Passion of Our Lord An Elizabethan Shoe Horn : Jane Ayres, 168 Prince Rupert's Fort, Cork Harbour Richard III. Original Portraits of John Howard, the Philanthropist- Edward Snitpe " H. K.," Member for Maldon, 169 The Mannequin or Dressmaker's Doll Tavern Signs -Sheffield Plate: Matthew Boultou Army Badges Ranelagu in Paris Mrs. Susanna Gordon, 170 Fieldson Family Sir Simon Le Blanc "Perfide Albion " Scottish Emigrants after Culloden Old Anglo-Indian Songs, 171. REPLIES : John Thornton of Coventry, and the Great East Window of York Minster, 171 Tercentenary Hand, list of Newspapers, 173 Royal British Bank Sir Robert Bell of Beaupre, 175 " Such as make no Musick " The Green Man, Ashbourne The Honourable Mr. A Wake Game Capt. Cook, Memorials, 176 The Old Horse Guarcio Buildings Scott's ' Legend of Montrose ' The Sentry at Pompeii, 177 Cardinal de Rohan Chabot Askell ' Franckinsence," 178 Cowper : Pronunciation of Name Author Wanted Author of Quotation Wanted. 179. tNOTES ON BOOKS : ' The Manor of Hawkesbury and its Owners' ' Charles Lamb : Miscellaneous Essays' 'French Furniture under Louis XVI. and the Empire.' .Notices to Correspondents. LOSS OF HER MAJESTY'S STEAMER BIRKEXHEAD. As Feb. 26 will be the sixty-ninth anni- versary of the wreck of the Birkenhead, the subjoined official report, taken from The Colonist, dated at Graham's Town, Mar. 20, 1852, will furnish fresh particulars of that disaster, and refresh the memory as to the regiments which suffered loss thereby, and the names of their officers. After striking the ground, she filled and went down in twenty minutes. Simon's Bay, 1st March, 1852. SIR. It is with the feelings of the deepest regret that 'I have to announce to you the loss of Her Majesty's ISteamer "Birkenhead," which took place on a rock about "21 or 3 miles off Point Danger, at 2 a.m., 26th February. The sea was smooth at the time, and the vessel was steaming at the rate of 8J knots an hour. She struck the rock, and it penetrated through her bottom, just aft the foremast. The rush of water was so great that there is no doubt that most of the men in the lower troop deck vere drowned in their hammocks. The i est of the men and all the officers appeared on deck, when Major Seton called all the officers about him, and impressed on them the necessity of preserving order and silence amongst the men. He directed me to take, and have executed, whatever orders the Commander might give me. 60 men were immediately put on to the chain pumps on the lower after deck, and told off in three reliefs. 60 men were put on the tackles of the paddle-box boats ; and the remainder of the men were brought on to the poop, f-o as to ease the forepart of the ship. She was at this time rolling heavily. The Com- mander ordered the horses [about 26j to be pitched out of the port gang way, and the cutter to be got ready for the women and children, who had all been collected under the poop awning. As soon as the horses were got over the side, the women and children were passed into the cutter, and under charge of Mr. Richards, Master's Assistant, the boat then stood off about 150 yards. Just after they got out of the ship the entire bow broke off at the fore- mast, the bow-sprit going up in the air towards the fore-top mast, and the funnel went over the side, carrying away the starboard paddle-box and boat. The other paddle-box boat capsized when being lowered. The large boat in the centre of the ship could not be got at. It was about 12 or 15 minutes after she struck that the bow r broke off. The men then all went up on the poop, and in about 5 minutes more the vessel broke in two, crosswise, just abaft the engine room, and the stern part immediately filled and went down. A few men jumped off just before she did so, but the greater number remained to the last, and so did every officer belonging to the troops. All the men I put on the tackles, I fear, were crushed when the funnel fell ; and the men and officers below at the pumps could not, I think, have reached the deck before the vessel broke up and went down. The survivors clung, some to the rigging of the mainmast, part of which was out of the water : and the others got hold of floting pieces of wood. I think there must have been about 200 en the drift- wood. I was on a large piece along with 5 others and we picked up 9 or 10 more. The swell carried the wood in the direction of Point Danger. 'As soon as it got to the weeds and breakers, finding that it would not support all that were on it, I jumped off and swam on shore : and when the others, and also those that were on the other pieces of wood, reached the shore, we pro- ceeded into the country, to try to find a habitation of any sort, where we could obtain shelter. Many of the men were naked and almost without shoes. Owing to the country covered with* thick thorny bushes, our progress was slow, but after walking till about 3 p.m., having reached land about 12, we came to where a wagon was out-spanned and the driver of it directed us to a small bay, where there is a hut of a fisherman. The bay is called Stanford's Cove. We arrived there about sunset, and as the men had nothing to eat, I went on to a farm-house,