Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (4279. Pte. T. Bowins, 54th. Foot) impressed naming, edge bruise, nearly extremely fine £300-£400

Provenance: Christie’s, April 1992.

Thomas Bowins was born in Dublin on 8 April 1842 and attested for the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot at Canterbury on 8 April 1856, on his 14th birthday. Soon after he proceeded with the Regiment to India in the troopship Sarah Sands.

The Sarah Sands
The Sarah Sands, a steamship requisitioned for troop transport, set sail on 15 August 1857 with three companies, and 14 officers of the 54th Regiment, bound for India. Also aboard were some of the soldiers’ families, including that of their Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel B. Moffat; the Regiment’s supplies; and 128 barrels of gunpowder for delivery to the Calcutta Arsenal. Such Transport ships, with press gang crews of questionable quality, had acquired a bad reputation amongst soldiers, due to incidents such as the sinking of the Birkenhead, which five years earlier had struck an uncharted reef off the South African coast causing the loss of 445 lives.

On 11 November, after a period of inclement weather, Sergeant J. Murray of the 54th Foot was leading a fatigue party to collect rations when he noticed smoke billowing out from the hatchway on the Orlop deck. The general alarm was raised and the Captain of the ship, Captain Castle, ordered the women and children into the lifeboats. Work parties were immediately organised to try and clear the powder and ammunition away from the stern, where the fire was concentrated. All the barrels were seemingly accounted for, and efforts to quell the blaze looked like they may reach a successful conclusion; however, two barrels of the ship’s signalling powder still remained in the hold. The heightening wind fanned the flames and led to its spread to the rigging in the early evening, climaxing at 9:00 p.m. with the cacophonous explosion as the fire finally found the signalling powder. Flaming debris erupted into the sky and the stern cabins were visually blown above the deck. The most critical damage came in the shape of the large hole created in the thick iron hull plates. It was at this point that Captain Castle ordered the crew and the 54th, who were gallantly fighting the fire, to prepare to abandon ship.

Major Brett, undeterred by the bleak situation that faced the 54th rallied his men to stay and fight on against the natural enemy. Ironically it was the large hole in the port quarter that was to come to the men’s aid. The water that surged through this hole with every dip in the waves combined with the eight hours of fire fighting that the 54th had put in finally extinguished the flames. It was at this point that the commanding officers took stock of the situation, ‘the steering gear was destroyed; only one mast, the foremast, was capable of carrying canvas; the steam pipes were damaged; the stern was shipping water. In addition to all this, the navigating instruments had been lost or destroyed, as had all provisions except a couple of barrels of salt beef and flour. And the fresh-water condensers were not functioning properly, the nearest land still some 600 miles away.’

With a stoic attitude it was decided to repair the ship as much as was possible with limited resources (including many improvisatory steps-such as a jury-rigged rudder operated by a team of six soldiers), and try to crawl to Mauritius. On 23 November, some ten days after the fire had broken out on the Sarah Sands, she limped into view of Port Louis. This feat was made possible partly by the durability and resolve of the soldiers of the 54th, and in no small part to the sailing ability of Captain Castle who had managed to get the disabled ship to port using only the ship’s compass and an atlas borrowed from an officer of the regiment aboard ship. The story the Sarah Sands inspired Rudyard Kipling to create a rather imaginative version in his Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides (1923), and indeed a change of policy regarding the award of the Victoria Cross. In light of the Birkenhead tragedy and the great fortitude shown by the 54th on the Sarah Sands, Queen Victoria approved the new warrant (August 1858) allowing the award to be given for ‘Courage and bravery displayed under circumstances of danger but not before the enemy.’ Strangely, despite a total of 29 commendations for the men of the 54th and their actions on that fateful voyage no Victoria Crosses were awarded. (The Saga of the Sarah Sands, by J.M. Brereton refers).

Arriving in India, Bowins subsequently saw active service during the Great Sepoy Mutiny (entitled to a no clasp medal), and served with the Regiment in India for a further 17 years. He was discharged on 6 July 1880, after 20 years and 90 days’ man service, and died in Maidstone, Kent, in 1911.

Sold with copied service records and other research.