Life Saving Medals from the Collection of John Wilson
Extract from Saved from the Flames, By Roger Willoughby and John Wilson:
The burning of the training ship Goliath on 22 December 1875, off Grays, in Essex, was widely reported at the time. At the time of the fire the ship had almost 500 people aboard, most of whom were young boys, housed there instead of at workhouses, to allow them to be apprenticed for the Royal Navy. Describing the fire, The Times (Friday, 24 December 1875, p. 8) reported: ‘The ship's crew, officers, and boys were at duty at a quarter to six in the morning, scrubbing the decks. The under decks were lighted by swing petroleum lamps – the petroleum, as is usual with work house stores, being supplied by contract. At a quarter or ten minutes to eight o'clock, just as daylight was breaking on the main deck of the old man-of-war all the port holes being opened to dry the wetted decks, a boy named Lober was in the act of carrying one of the lighted lamps for the purpose of extinguishing it, when…part of it burnt his hand and he dropped it. The whole place was instantly in a blaze, for the burning fluid at once set fire to the pitched joints between the boarding, for pitch was plentifully used in the old ships, and at once she was in fireman's phrase “well alight”. The fire bell rang, and so strong was the power of discipline over the minds of the boys that they all took their places at the pumps, every officer being at his place. A very short time showed that the attempts to save the vessel were useless, for the hose, by the rapidity with which the flames licked the ship, had been destroyed; in fact, the excellent ventilation of the ship led to this rapidity of destruction. Captain Bouchier gave orders then to the boys who could swim to get to land – then about 500 feet distant – and many swam ashore. All the ship's boats were almost useless, for the lowering apparatus got burnt and the boats fell into the water. Fortunately there was a barge moored close to the ship, and the little fellows, most of them being between seven and ten years of age, aided by the assistant school-master, Mr Tye, and other officers, got into this. Some twenty boys who first got into the barge, frightened by the flames and choked by the dense smoke, wanted to push off; but one of their number; a little fellow named Billy Bolton, manfully held the barge to its place, he exercising his authority as a boy mate until all who came on that side of the ship had got over the ship's side, and then a push was made for land. The barge grounded on the mud, and it was not practicable to push her out again against the running tide. At this time Captain Walters, from the Arethusa and the Chichester, with the Queen Street Refuge boys, came up with three boats. Mr Hall, the Chief Officer of the Goliath, had been with Captain Bouchier, in directing means for saving the boys, while Mr Fenn, the head schoolmaster, Mr Gunton, and Mr Norris, the instructors in seamanship, were assisting by endeavouring to get the boats down. There were five women on board – Mrs Bouchier, her two daughters, and two female servants. The flames in a few minutes had mounted to the upper deck, and Mr Fenn reached a boat, and persuaded Mrs Bouchier to jump from the deck of the ship, about 32 feet, into the water. She jumped, and was saved. The cook and housemaid also jumped into the water and were picked up. The two daughters came down ropes, one hand-over- hand, and the boat load was taken on shore…While Mr Fenn was helping the women to escape from death by drowning or burning, cries came from Mr Hall, who was clinging with Mr Wheeler to a boat which had been struck and was stove in. The boat was drifting out, and when attention could be paid to this stove-in boat, Mr Hall was rescued, but Mr Wheeler had disappeared. The last to leave the ship…was Captain Bouchier. He had ordered the last batch of boys to go, when they called out to him to go first. The galley of Captain Walters, of the Arethusa was near, and they heard Captain Bouchier reply, “That's not the way at sea, my boys”, and when he again told them to go, one little workhouse boy clasped him round the neck, weepingly saying, “You'll be burnt, Captain”. The captain pushed the boys off and followed himself, all being picked up by Captain Walter's galley. Just as they were about to pull off for the shore, Captain Bouchier spied a boy clinging to the “fender” of the ship, and he called to the crew to save the boy. Not a moment was to be lost, for the masts were well alight, the foreyard was dangling ready to fall, where the devoted boat's crew was, and there was the most imminent danger of the mainmast falling. Captain Walters gave the word of command and the boat's crew struck out for the dangerous spot under the bow of the vessel where the “fender” is placed, and the poor boy was saved from what a moment or two after must have been certain death to all in the boat, for the flames were so close to the boat's crew that the flannel on the captain's back was singed, and the whiskers on another's face was burnt; but they rescued the boy and pushed off just as the fare moorings broke and the ship slewed with her head down the river, presenting the other side to the wind, and a very heavy wind was blowing, and thus the flames were turned to that part of the ship which was less touched before. Mr Fenn had been in another boat picking up the boys, and the boat he was in getting over full, he plunged into the water and swam to one of Captain Walter's boats, to assist in rescuing others. It was then found that poor Wheeler, the teacher, seeing Mr Hall trying to clear a boat in which were two boys, jumped into the boat out of the window. The boat, as stated, was stove in and drifted out, Mr Hall holding up the boys, but Mr Wheeler, not being used to the water, was, it is feared, not able to hold out…’.
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