Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 10
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 10
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
The next occurrence which we shall record is the melancholy accident
which took place on the Island of May in January, 1791.
For two evenings no light was exhibited from the lighthouse, and the
weather was such as no boat could put off to ascertain the cause. On the
third day the storm abated, and a boat was manned from Crail. No sooner
had the crew of the boat landed, than they were assailed by a strong
sulphurous smell, and proceeding directly to the lighthouse, they found
the door shut, and no one answered their call. Forcing an entrance, they
saw the keeper, his wife, and five children, all lying suffocated, and a
sixth infant sucking its dead mother. In another room were found two men
almost expiring, but who, by the timely assistance rendered,
providentially recovered. It was supposed that this sad accident was
occasioned by some burning coals being blown among some cinders and
refuse lying at the bottom of the lighthouse.
The last incident to which we shall refer is the boat disaster at the
island in 1837.
On the 1st of July, 1837, a skipper and boat-owner belonging to
Cellardyke set sail from that harbour, with a large party, on a pleasure
excursion to the Isle of May. The day was fine and wind favourable, and
the party, chiefly young men and women, consisting of sixty-five
persons, including the crew, were all in high spirits, having music on
board, indulging freely in mirth and gaiety, and little thinking of the
sad event impending over their heads, by which, in a little half-hour,
so many of them were to perish.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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