The Lt.-Colonel, whose post was to be with the 1st battalion, had the general charge and superintendence of the whole regiment, assisted by an additional major. The reserved battalion had the usual proportion of officers and non-commissioned officers appointed to it, but had no flank companies. The senior major had the immediate command of the reserve battalion.
The reserve battalion having been reported fit for service, was directed to hold itself in readiness to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope.
The wing under Capt. Bertie Gordon—who had joined the regiment about nine years previously, and who was so long and honourably connected with the 91st—joined the headquarters of the regiment at Naas on May 26th 1842, where the six companies were united under his command, both the lt.-col. and the major being on leave. On the 27th of May the battalion, under Capt. Gordon, proceeded from Naas to Kingstown, and embarked on board the transport “Abercrombie Robinson.” On the 2d of June the transport sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, the strength of the regiment on board being 17 officers and 460 men, Lt.-Col. Lindsay being in command. The ship also contained drafts of the 27th regiment and the Cape Mounted Rifles. The transport having touched at Madeira, arrived in Table Bay on the 25th of August 1842. Here the battalion was warned for service on the north-eastern frontier of the colony, relieving the 1st battalion of the regiment, which was to be stationed at Cape Town. In consequence of this arrangement Lt.-Col. Lindsay and Major Ducat disembarked on the 27th, for the purpose of joining the 1st battalion, to which they belonged. All the other officers, not on duty, obtained permission to go ashore, and all landed except six, the command of the troops on board devolving on Capt. Bertie Gordon.
An event now took place which can only be paralleled by the famous wreck of the “Birkenhead” ten years afterwards, the narrative of which we have recorded in our history of the 74th.
At 11 o’clock P.M., on the night of the 27th, it was blowing a strong gale, and the sea was rolling heavily into the bay. The ship was pitching much and began to feel the ground, but she rode by two anchors, and a considerable length of cable had been served out the night before. Captain Gordon made such arrangements as he could, warning the officers, the sergeant-major, and the orderly non-commissioned officers to be in readiness.
From sunset on the 27th the gale had continued to increase, until at length it blew a tremendous hurricane, and at a little after 3 o’clock on the morning of the 28th the starboard cable snapped in two. The other cable parted a few minutes afterwards, and away went the ship before the storm, her hull striking with heavy crashes against the ground as she drove towards the beach, three miles distant under her lee. About the same time the fury of the gale, which had never lessened, was rendered more terrible by one of the most awful storms of thunder and lightning that had ever been witnessed in Table Bay.
While the force of the wind and sea was driving the ship into shoaler water, she rolled incessantly and heaved over fearfully with the back set of the surf. While in this position the heavy seas broke over her side and poured down the hatchways, the decks were opening in every direction, and the strong framework of the hull seemed compressed together, the beams starting from their places. The ship had been driven with her starboard bow towards the beach, exposing her stern to the sea, which rushed through the stern-posts and tore up the cabin floors of the orlop deck. The thunder and lightning ceased towards morning, and the ship seemed to have worked a bed for herself on the sand; for the rolling had greatly diminished, and there then arose the hope that all on board might get safe ashore.
At daybreak, about 7 o’clock, the troops, who had been kept below, were now allowed to come on deck in small numbers. After vain attempts to send a rope ashore, one of the cutters was carefully lowered on the lee side of the ship, and her crew succeeded in reaching the shore with a hauling line. The large surf-boats were shortly afterwards conveyed in waggons to the place where the ship was stranded, and the following orders were given by Captain Gordon for the disembarkation of the troops:—1. The women and children to disembark first; of these there were above 90. 2. The sick to disembark after the women and children. 3. The disembarkation of the troops to take place by the companies of the 91st Regiment drawing lots; the detachment of the 27th Regiment and the Cape Mounted Rifles to take the precedence. 4. The men to fall in on the upper deck, fully armed and accoutred, carrying their knapsacks and their great-coats. 5. Each officer to be allowed to take a carpet-bag or small portmanteau.
The disembarkation of the women and children and of the sick occupied from half-past 8 until 10 o’clock A.M. The detachments of the 27th Regiment and the Cape Mounted Rifles followed. The disembarkation of the 91st was arranged by, first, the wings drawing lots, and then the companies of each wing.
At half-past 10 one of the surf boats, which had been employed up to this time in taking the people off the wreck, was required to assist in saving the lives of those on board the “Waterloo” convict ship, which was in still more imminent peril about a quarter of a mile from the “Abercrombie Robinson.” There was now but one boat to disembark 450 men, the wind and sea beginning again to rise, and the captain was apprehensive that the ship might go to pieces before sunset.