The Loss of the Birkenhead by Cicely Fox Smith

Thanks to David Blakeley from the CFS Facebook group for pointing this poem of Cicely Fox Smith's out to me.

Looks like mine might be the first setting to music.

Images are from the wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_(1845)

This ship went down off the coast of Africa in 1852 and close to 500 soldiers sacrificed their own lives to allow the women and children to take the woefully inadequate lifeboats.

More of the story here:
http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/coronat/diving/wrecks/birkenhead/birkenhead.htm

This poem seems to have dropped off the great collection of Cicely's work here:
https://allpoetry.com/Cicely-Fox-Smith

Francis Doyle wrote a different poem about the event:
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-loss-of-the-birkenhead-2/

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