Birkenhead survivors
R M Bond-Shelton
CAPTAIN R M
BOND-SHELTON was the son of a large landed proprietor in County Armagh and in
Wiltshire. He was born at Cheltenham, and joined the Army in 1851 his war
service including the Cape (Kaffir War), Crimea,
and Indian Mutiny. He retired in 1858. In 1902 he was living at The Argory in Moy Co Tyrone. At the
time of the disaster he was Cornet Bond of the 12th Royal Lancers
detachment .
Cornet Bond made
this statement following his rescue .....“We left Simon’s Bay at seven o’clock on the evening of the 24th
. At two o’clock the next morning I was awoke by the vessel striking upon a
rock. I immediately dressed myself and went on deck, and found all in confusion.
I heard the Captain give orders to ‘back her,’ which I hardly think was
carried into effect, as the fires were almost immediately extinguished. He then
gave orders to Major Seton to get the horses up and throw them overboard, and I
with a sergeant and some men belonging to the 12th Lancers succeeded in doing so. I then went on the
poop, where the Captain was standing. He told me to go and get the women and
children up, which I did by carrying up two of the latter. The others followed
and were immediately lowered into the boats. At this time the greatest order and
regularity prevailed. All the officers were then employed with gangs of men at
the pumps, and a number of soldiers, under command of Mr. Brodie, the master,
were endeavouring to haul out the paddle box boat on the port side, which was
nearly hoisted out when the tackle broke, and it remained fixed in the air. The
fore part of the ship now broke off at the foremast, and soon after she
cracked in the middle and filled with water A great many of the men on the
troop-deck were drowned in their hammocks, not being able to effect an escape.
All those who could succeed in reaching the poop now crowded there, and the
Captain sung out to those that could swim ‘to make for the boats,’ of which
there were three, at a distance of 150
yards. They did not come nearer for fear of being swamped. A gig on the
starboard side was then ordered to be lowered, in which Mr. Rolt, of the 12th
Lancers, who was unable to swim, and several seamen, were seen to enter; but in
lowering it one of the ropes broke, and she was swamped. Poor Rolt rose, but was
unable to reach the shore, and was drowned. The poop immediately afterwards,
owing to the force of the water rushing up, went down, drawing all those who
were on it as well as myself under water. I rose to the surface almost
immediately. I had one of Mackintosh’s life-preservers on, which may be filled
in the .water, which I did.
“The sea at this time
was. covered with struggling forms, while the cries, piercing shrieks, and
shoutings for the boats were awful. I swam astern in hopes of being picked up by
one of them. I hailed one sixty yards off, but could not reach it as they pulled
away, I suppose for fear of too many attempting to get in. I then turned round
and made for the shore, about two miles distant, which I finally succeeded in
reaching at a little after 5 a.m. by swimming only. Two men who were swimming
close to me I saw disappear with a shriek, most probably bitten by sharks. I
fortunately hit on a landing place, but owing to the great quantity of seaweed I
had to struggle through, and being quite exhausted, I almost failed in reaching
it. I then walked up a sort of beaten track from the beach in hopes of finding
some habitation. In doing so I perceived my horse at a short distance standing
in the water on the beach. I got him out and then returned to the place at which
I landed, when I saw a raft with about nine men on it endeavouring to land, but they did not succeed in doing so until they saw me on the
rocks standing opposite to the proper spot; they then steered straight for me,
and finally landed at 7 a.m. Lieutenant Girardot, of the 43rd Light Infantry,
was one of them. At the same time two or three other men were thrown on the
rocks off a spar, and landed very much cut and bruised and entirely naked. We
all then proceeded up this track, and after two hours’ march we saw a waggon
up the shore, to which we went and obtained some bread and water. The driver
directed us to proceed further up the beach, and at five miles’ distance we
should find some fishing cottages belonging to Captain Smales, where we arrived
very much fatigued at noon. Here we obtained some more bread, and then marched
on to Captain Smales’ residence, about twelve miles off, over the sands. On
our way thither we met a bullock waggon, which took some of our men, who were
too much knocked up to proceed, back to the cottages we had just left. At seven
o’clock p.m. our party, consisting of 2
officers and 4 men, arrived at Captain Smales’, where we were most
kindly received, the men being provided with both clothes and victuals. Captain
Smales immediately
despatched a messenger for the Field-Cornet and magistrate of the district, who on
their arrival proceeded with us the next morning to the scene of the wreck. On
our way thither we met numbers of men who had landed. Some came ashore in the
paddle box boats, which had floated up; the one was full of water and the other
keel uppermost. One of the ships` quartermasters told me that there were seven
others in the boat with him, which was full of water. They,
however, all died from cold, having been many hours in the boat and quite naked.
He had his clothes on. We also met Captain Wright 91st, who had
landed on the sponson: he had been along the shore and had picked up several
men. Some rafts reached the shore with bodies lashed on them quite dead; other
bodies washed up, some of them dreadfully mangled by sharks. Her Majesty’s
steamer Rhadamanthus hove in sight on Sunday, took us off, and brought us into Simon’s Bay the
next morning. The time from when the ship struck, to the period at which the
poop sank and those on it were precipitated into the water, did not occupy more
than twenty minutes.”