Right on our flank the crimson sun went down, The deep sea rolled around in dark repose,When, like the wild shriek from some captured town, A cry of women rose.
The stout ship Birkenhead lay hard and fast,
Caught, without hope, upon a hidden rock;
Her timbers thrilled as nerves, when through them passed The spirit of that shock.
And ever, like base cowards who leave their ranks In danger"s hour, before the rush of steel,Drifted away, disorderly, the planks From underneath her keel.
Confusion spread; for, though the coast seemed near, Sharks hovered thick along that white sea-brink.
The boats could hold-not all, and it was clear She was about to sink.
" Out with those boats, and let us haste away, " Cried one, "ere yet yon sea the bark devours ! "The man thus clamouring was, I scarce need say,No officer of ours.
We knew our duty better than to care
For such loose babblers, and made no reply; Till our good colonel gave the word, and thereFormed us in line-to die.
There rose no murmur from the ranks, no thought By shameful strength unhonoured life to seek;Our post to quit we were not trained, nor taught To trample down the weak.
So we made women with their children go.
The oars ply back again, and yet again;
Whilst, inch by inch, the drowning ship sank low, Still under steadfast men.
What followed, why recall? The brave who died, Died without flinching in the bloody surf.
They sleep as well beneath that purple tide, As others under turf.
Sir Francis Hastings Doyle
Author.-Sir Francis Hastings Doyle (1810-1888) was an English poet who was for 10 years professor of Poetry at Oxford University. His poems are chiefly about English heroism. Some readers may know " The Private of the Buffs, " "The Red Thread of Honour, " " The Saving of the Colours,"or "Gordon. "
General.-The Birkenhead (named after a town near Liverpool, in Eng- land), a large troop-ship, with 632 souls on board, struck a rock off Cape Danger, west of South Africa, on a clear night in February, 1852. Colonel Seton, of the 74th Highlanders, paraded his men on deck and gave orders that women and children must be saved first. Again and again boatloads of women and children were taken to the shore, till all, or nearly all, had been saved, the men helping, or looking on, without a murmur. The ship was fast sinking. At last the end came : officers and men, still shoulder to shoulder and calmly awaiting death, went down with the ship. The lines quoted are put into the mouth of a soldier who is supposed to have survived. What similar examples of heroism can you recall? Have you heard of the stokehold of the Southland?
