The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-05-18
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The Heroine Of Lake Erie,
HN JOIN q. MHIrIIER

The lark, stormy close of November,
1854, found many vessels on Lake Erie,
but the fortunes of one alone have special
interest for us. About that time the
Schooner Conductor, owned 10y John
Mcleod OF the Provincial Parliament, a
resident of Amherstburg. at the mouth Of
the Detroit River, entered the lake from
that river, bound for Port Dalhousie at
the mouth of the Welland Canal She
was heavily loaded with gram. Her crew
consisted of Captain Hackett, Highlan.
der by birth, and skilful and experien
ced navigator, and six s,i'ors At night.
fall, shortly after leaving the head of the
lake, one of those terrific storms, with
which the late autumnal naviga,ors of
that "Sea of the Woods" are all too ia l..
miliar, overlook them. The weather was
intensely cold for the season the air was
filed with snow and seet the chilled
water made ice rapidly, encumbering the
schooner, and loading down her decks
and rigging. As the gale increased, the
tops Of the waves were shorn off by the
fierce blasts, ciouding the whole atmos.
phere with frozen spray, or what the sal
Iors cali "spoon-drift," rendering it i'm.
possible to see any object few rods dis
tani. Driving helplessly before the wind,
yet in the direction of its place OF de.ti-
nation, the schooner sped through the
darkness, Al las, near midnight, running
closer than her crew supposed to the Ca.
madam Shore, she struck on the outer bar
off Long Point Island, beat heavily across
it, and sunk in the deeper water between
it and tho inner bar The hull WAS en-
tirely submerged, the waves rolling IN
heavily, and dashing over the rigging, to
which the crews betook themselves.
Lashed there, numb with cold, drenched
by the pitiless waves, and scourged by the
showers of sleet driven before the wind,
they waited for morning. The slow,
dreadful hours wore away. and at length
the dubious and doubtful gray of a morn
of tempest succeeded to the utter darkness
of night.
Abigail Becker CHANGED at that time to
be in her hat with none but her young
children. Her husband was absent on the
Canada shore, and she was left the sole
adult occupant of the island, save the
lightkeeper at its lower end, some fifteen
miles off, Looking out at day light on
the beach in front Of her door, she saw
the shattered boat of the Conductor, cast
up by the waves. Her experience of
storms and disaster on that dangerous coast
needed nothing more to convince her that
somewhere in her neighborhood human
life had been, or still was, in peril. She
followed the southwesterly trend of the
island for little distance, and, peerine
through the gloom OF the stormy morning,
discerned the spars Of the sunken schooner,
with what seemed to be human forms
clinging to the rigging. The heart of
the strong woman sunk within her, as she
gazed upon those helpless fellow creatures,
so near,yet so unapproachable. She had
no boat and none could have lived on that
wild water. After moments reflection
she went back to her dwelling, put the
smaller children in charge of the eldest,
took with her an iron kettle, tin teapot,
and matches, and returned TO the beach,
at the nearest point to the vessel and,
gathering up the logs and drift.w al,
ways abundant on the coast, kindled a
great ilre, ana constantly walked back and
forth between it and the vessel, strove to
intimate to the sufferers that they were at
least not beyond human sympathy. As
the wrecked sailors looked shoreward, and
saw, through the thick haze of snow and
sleet, the red light Of fire, and the tall
figure of the woman passing to and fro be-
fore it, faint hope took the place of ut
ter despair, which had prompted them to
let 90 their hold, and drop into the seeth-
ing waters, that opened and closed about
them like the jaws of death. But the
day wore on, bringing no abatement Of
the storm that tore through the frail spars
and clutchsd at and tossed them as it pass
ed, and drenched them with ice cold spray,
"a pitiless, unrelentins horror Of sight,
sound, and touch! At last the deepen