Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
History
Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
Women heroes
It could only have been by the exertion of muscular power as well as
determined courage that the father and daughter carried the boat to
the rock. And when there a danger, greater even than that which they
had encountered in approaching it, arose from the difficulty of
steadying the boat and preventing its being destroyed on those sharp
ridges by the ever-restless chafing and heaving of the billows.
The father and daughter could see the eager faces turned toward them,
and the sight redoubled their efforts in reaching the rock, and in the
task of disembarking and drawing the boat up the rock and out of reach
of the waves. It was a perilous landing-place. But when the craft was
secured the father and Grace approached the half-dead group.
All were safe except the two children. Their mother was seemingly
dead, also, and lay clasping the bodies in her arms. But care and
attention revived her. A fireman who had lain for three hours on the
rock where he had been tossed, had clung to a strong nail spiked in
the rock, and though lashed and beaten by the waves, and tortured by
bleeding hands, he had not let go.
The rescuers placed the survivors one by one in the boat. But the
return journey was even more perilous than that which took them to the
wreck, although the sailors aided at the oars. Longstone, however, was
at last reached and the sufferers housed in the lighthouse.
They were in safety, but the violence of the sea forbade any attempt
to reach the mainland. There were good accommodations at the light.
The tower was ingeniously built, and besides a well-furnished
sitting-room, in which was a capital collection of books, had three
or four comfortable bedrooms. In addition there was an abundance of
wholesome, homely fare.
The poor woman who had lost her children was suffering intensely, and
to her Grace gave up her bed, sleeping upon a table. A boat's crew
from Northumberland, which after some hours came in search of the
_Forfarshire_, also had to claim the hospitality of the lighthouse,
and for three days were held by the raging seas. Finally, the passage
to the mainland was undertaken in safety, and the news reached the
keeper's family that the boat first launched had been picked up and
its nine passengers rescued. Of the sixty-three who had sailed from
Hull five days before, nineteen were alive.
Within a few days search was made for the missing bodies, but almost
in vain. The cargo of the steamer, which was of unusual value was
wholly lost. The wreck, consisting of the engine, paddle-wheels,
anchor, foremast and rigging, remained upon the rock and was visited
by thousands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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