Birkenhead survivors
CORPORAL WILLIAM BUTLER 12th Royal Lancers.
His story was taken down at his dictation by Mr. W. M. Nightingale, a friend Mr. Herbert Penny secretary to the Capetown branch of the Navy League. Mr. Nightingale described this veteran survivor as a fine specimen of an Englishman, who has a splendid farm and said he was “as upright as a dart and as hale and hearty as possible.” Mr. Butler’s recollections of the wreck are an interesting addition to the other recorded personal accounts.
I was born (he says) at Shortwood Farm, one mile from Hucknall Torkard Notts, on March 19th 1830 and in 1848 joined the ‘Cherry Pickers (11th Hussars), and went with them to Dublin, where volunteers were requested for the Cape of Good Hope. Five of us volunteered for the 12th Lancers, and were drafted to Cork, where we boarded the Birkenhead. As soon as we were out of harbour the sea was mountainous and we took fourteen days to reach Madeira. From there we went to Sierra Leone, where a stoker swan, ashore to desert. He was caught and the next morning we were all paraded to see him receive fifty lashes. Thence we went to St. Helena and from there to Simon’s making 47 days. We remained at Simon’s Bay a day or two, taking on board baggage, eighteen horses, hay, etc., so that the main deck was full, hay being piled nearly to the top of the funnel, leaving absolutely no room for troops to parade. We left Simon’s Bay at sunset, and between twelve and one o’clock in the morning, when the sea was very calm, we ran on a reef. It was like a clap of thunder. Everyone rushed out. The Captain and officers behaved splendidly; the former sang out, ‘Soldiers and sailors, keep quiet, and I will save you all ” There was calm after panic; we lowered the gangway, and pitched four guns and the horses overboard. Captain Wright, of the 91st, jumped after his horse and got ashore with him. The Captain ordered Mr. Brodie, to get the paddle box boats loose. In doing so he got his thighs jammed. When the vessel went down, the boat he had loosened remained in the water keel up. I saw four men get ashore on her, one man sitting on the keel with a big coat on, the three others paddling. Three on spar also reached the shore, two men and a cabin boy; the boy sat on the spar, and the men paddled. I saw another get ashore on a truss of hay.
As to the troops being paraded it is imagination. She was loaded to the funnel. The last words I heard th Captain say were “Soldiers and sailors, I’ve done what I can for you. I can`t do more. Those who can swim do so; those who can’t climb the rigging.” Then it was a rush. Two quarter boats had been lowered and the women and children put into them, all of whom were saved. These boats left the wreck at once, and remained on the water till daybreak then, seeing a vessel, they went to her, the Captain bringing her to within two miles of the wreck. She was a schooner.
The Birkenhead broke in two at the fore and then at the mainmast, the hind part sinking and the officers going down the mainmast, with forty odd on the mainyard, remaining above water. The schooner `s boats saved all the latter; she went into Simon`s Bay, where the survivors were put on board the Castor, about 75 in all. When the Captain told us to save ourselves, many of us jumped overboard. I had stripped, I got hold of a bit of wreckage, on which it took me about seven hours to reach the shore where the survivors mustered in lots of six to ten who knew each other and walked in the direction of Simon`s Bay, taking two days to reach the same. Many, like myself, were naked. I got two gunny bags, all my covering, my head being bare, and was in the doctors` hands a month, all my hair and even skin coining off. We passed seven Dutch houses on the road, the inmates of which gave us food and seemed very much afraid of us. We remained on the Castor about a month, and then went in the Rhadamanthus to East London.
He served throughout the Wars and after his discharge with the rank of corporal, settled in South Africa and became a farmer in the Whittlesea district of Queenstown.