So we all know Women & Children First/Only is what happened with Titanic and really one of the MANY reasons things went wrong. Well no not really, more like the interpretation of the order, the lifeboat laws, the thought-line of lifeboats at that time in 1912, time itself, the fact that the water is cold enough to cause the death's people with hyperthermia within 15 minutes, zero ship in sight to help, and people genuinely staying aboard the sinking ship but y'all get what I mean. Women & Children First isn't an actual official rule of the sea, it's more like a unofficial code of honor more than anything else. It'a called The Birkenhead Drill.

The Birkenhead Drill is pretty much all women and children board a lifeboat first. Something that's widely associated with Titanic because of the sinking. The H.M.S Birkenhead is also known as the HM Troopship Birkenhead or Steam Frigate Birkenhead was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy. She was designed as a steam frigate, but was converted to a troopship before being commissioned. The Birkenhead was launched on December 30th, 1845. On January 25th, 1852, she set sail from Portsmouth for what was meant to be  routine troop transport mission. Onboard were troops from several different British military regiments including the 74th Regiment of Foot, the Queen's Royal Regiment, as well as the officers' wives and children. Her first port of call was Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, where a fresh regiment boarded the vessel bound for South Africa.

These troops had never seen combat and many had signed up to evade the hardships of the "potato famine" in Ireland at the time. From Jreland, Birkenhead set sail for South Africa to deposit her cargo of fighting men to assist in the Eighth Cape Frontier War (1850 - 53). The voyage from Ireland was a particularly rough one. The ship sailed from a terrible storm immediately on leaving port - a fact which points to the urgency of the voyage. Many sailing ships of the day would have put back into port in that type of weather but Birkenhead was in a hurry. She was under the orders to get the reinforcements she carried as quickly as possible to South Africa. In fact, her 47 day passage to Simon's Town, South Africa set a record for a time.

The exact number of of crew and passengers are hard to estimate but it's somewhere in the region of 643 or at least that's often quoted. This included 31 children, 25 women, and 125 crew. It's not unusual for the time I assure y'all. On February 23rd, 1853, the Birkenhead docked at Simon's Town near modern-day Cape Town to take on food and water, cavalry horses, and feed ready for her final leg. Some women, children, and sick soldiers are embarked but not at all. On February 25th, 1853 embarked on her final voyage. To ensure the ship made the best speed, the ship's captain, Captain Salmond, ordered the vessel to hug the South African Coast. To this end, the course was set that kept the ship roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) from the shore. Something tells me that wasn't a good idea.

Using her paddle wheels, she maintained a steady speed of 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h). The sea was calm and the night was clear as she left False Bay and headed east. However being this close to the show is a added risk of unforeseen hazards at sea as the water was so shallow and while the charts were pretty good for the area, the calm weather gave the crew what would turn out to be a false sense of security. Lookouts were posted fore and aft, and officers were on station on the bridge and sailors on watch throughout the final leg. Everything seemed to have been going to plan. With the exception of the duty watch, everyone else were tucked up asleep in their quarters. At around 2 AM on the morning of February 26th, 1853, a sailor's voice broke the night-time silence to announce "12 fathoms, all is well". The fathom is roughly 5.9 ft (1.8 m) in depth.

That was the leadsman, a sailor tasked with taking water depth readings. Another sailor announced that they were at "4-bells", meaning they were halfway through the watch. The Birkenhead was making good progress. At just that moment, the ship ran full steam into an unknown, and unforeseen, hidden reef of rock at a place called "danger point". Totally not a haunting name in hindsight what's so ever. Rocks were noted on the charts in this area, but for whatever reason this one wasn't. It was roughly 2 fathoms (3.7 m) below the water and was barely submerged in the calm seas. If the sea had been a little more turbulent, the crew of the ship would likely have readily seen it.

The ocean messing up the crew of a ship's ability to sense in any upcoming danger is sounding really fucking familiar right now. The Birkenhead hit the rocks so hard that with her paddles continuing to run full speed, that she was dragged even further onto the rocks. This fatally wounded the ship. Her hull had been teared open from the compartment between the engine room and forepeak. Anyone who's ever researched about the SS Atlantic, White Star Line's worst disaster before Titanic back in 1873 on April 1st, and the Costa Concordia back in 2012 on January 13th, would know that rocks are NOT a ship's best friend. Water flooded the fire ward compartment of the Lowe troop deck filling it instantly. Hundreds of soldiers were trapped and drowned in their hammocks as they slept. These are just the first of many casualties on this night.

I would say at least it sounds peaceful but the very idea of people being trapped and not knowing they were about to die is horrifying. Moments later, the ship's captain rushed onto deck and ordered the ship's anchors to be released and lowered into the water. It was time to abandon ship. All of the surviving crew and passengers were ordered to muster on deck and await their officers' orders. Captain Salmond requested that some of the soldiers help to man the pumps and 60 people were assigned in a vain attempt to raise the rapidly flooding forward section of the Birkenhead.

All the women and children were ordered on deck ASAP. The walking wounded soon began to to appear on deck as well. Another 60 or so were tasked with releasing lifeboats, and the rest ordered to stand at attention on the poop deck (never understood why that part of a ship is called that) to act as a counterweight at the rear of the vessel (stern probably). The ship's cutter, a small coastal patrol vessel, was deployed and the women and children were board it. Of the ship's 8 lifeboats (including the cutter), 2 (with a capacity of 150 each) were crewed, but 1 immediately swamped and the other couldn't be launched due to poor maintenance and dried paint on the winches. This only left 3 smaller boats available and those were soon filled with women, children, and some of the crew.

The rest remained assembled on deck. The senior officer onboard, Lieutenant-Colonel Seton of the 74th Foot, took charge of all military personnel. He summoned his officers around him and stressed the importance of maintaining discipline. Seton drew his sword and ordered his men to stand fast. Captain Salmon noticed the desperation of the situation and made what now seems like a very very very bad idea. He ordered the Birkenhead to reverse course and back off the rock so that the remaining lifeboats could be launched. This proved to be the final nail in the coffin the ship. It's fate is sealed. They were better off NOT doing that probably. The Birkenhead broke free only to struck MORE rocks and her formidable bull plates, namely round her bulge, were bent and tucked, resulting in internal bulkheads failing.

At one point the ship's funnel collapsed over the side and forepart the of the ship, killing anyone in it's path. The stern section, now crowded with men, floated for a few minutes before sinking. The ship went down. Captain Salmon called out to all survivors "All those who can swim jump overboard, and make for the boats". Colonel Seton realized the immediate danger of a large amount of men swamping the boats and countermanded the order. "You will swamp the cutter containing women and children. I implore you not to do this thing and I ask of all you to stand fast!" Apparently the notice soldiers didn't move even when the ship was split apart. Only a hand few broke rank and made for the boats but that was the exception, not the entirety of them.

Calvary horses were blinkered and released into the water in the hope that they could make it to land. Amazingly, some of them did make it. An officer even found his horse on land later that day. Though the horrific nature didn't end because fucking sharks and other sea animals existed on this night. Though I do wanna being up one man who was killed by sharks. An young officer named Ensign Alexander Russell was assigned to one of the boats and dived into the water to save a woman's husband. He helped him into the boat and the man took Russell's place. Russell tried to make for land but was overtaken by the sharks before he could.

The Birkenhead has pretty much gone down in history as creating the Women and Children first rule aka The Birkenhead Drill.

Sources:
interestingengineering.com
Wikipedia