Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-04-29
THE HEROINE OF LAKE ERIE.
BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.

| thS NhAA SlOluy ClOSc vi NOfeuDcI,
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 by John
Mcleod of the Provincial Parliament,
q resident of Amherstburg, al the mouth
OF the Detroit river, entered the lake
from that river, bound for Port Dal-
housle, at the mouth of the Welland
Canal. She was heavily loaded with
| grain. Her crew consisted of Captain
Hackett, a Highlander by birth, and a
skillful and experienced navigator and
six sailors. At night-fall, shortly after
leaving the head of the lake, one of
those terrific storms, with which the
late autumnal navigators of that "Sea
OF the Woods" are all too familiar, over
took them. The weather was intensely
cold for the season the air was filled
with snow and sleet; 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 We're shorn off by the
fierce blasts, cleuding the whole at
mosphere with frozen spray, or what the
sailors call ''spoon-driit," rendering it
impossible to see any object few rods
distant. Driving helplessly before the
wind, yet i'll the direction of its place of
destination, the schooner sped through
the darkness. AT last, near midnight.
running closer than her crew supposed
to the Canadian shore, she struck on the
outer bar off Long Point Island, beat
heavily across it. and sunk in the deep
er water between iG and the inner bar.
The hull was entirely submerged, the
waves rolling in heavily, and dashing
over the rigging, to which the crew be-
took 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 tue dubious
and doubtful gray of morning of temp
est succeeded to the utter darkness of
night.
Abigail Becker chanced at that time
to be in her hut 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 light keeper at its lower
end, some fifteen miles off. Looking
out at daylight on the beach in front Of
her door, she saw the shattered boat of
the Conductor, cast up by the waves
Her experience of storm 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, peering 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 a moments re-
Election 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-wood always abundant on the coast, |
kindled great fire, and, CONSTANT
ly walking back and forth between
it and the water, strove to inti-
mate to the sufferers that they
were at least not beyond human SYM
pathy. AS the wrecked sailors looked
shoreward, and saw, through the thick
haze of snow and sleet, the red light of
the fire, and the tall tigure of the wo-
man passing to and fro before it, faint
hope took the place of the utter despair,
which had prompted them to let go their
hold, and drop into the seething waters,
that opened and closed about them like
the jaws of death. But the day wore
on, bringing no abatement of the STERN
that tore through the frail spars, and
at and tossed them as it passed,
and drenched them with ice cold spray
"a pitiless, unrelenting horror of sight.
sound, and touch At last the deepen
ing, gloom told them that night was ap-
and night, under such cir
Gu instances, was death.
All day long Abigail Becker had fed
her fire, and sought to induce the sailor
by signals-for even her strong voice
could not reach them-to throw them
selves into the surf, and trust to Provi-
ience aud her for succOr. II anticipa-
ton of this, she had her kettle boiling
over the driftwood and her tea ready
made for restoring warmth and life to
the half frozen survivors. But either
they did not understand her, or the
chance of rescue seemed toe small to in
luce them to abandon the temporary
safety of the wreck. They clung to it
with the desperate instinct of life brought
face to face with death. Just at night
fall there was slight break in the west;
\ red light glared across the thick air, as 1
# for one instant the eye of the storm
ooked out upon the ruin it had wrought,
and closed again under lids of cloud !
Taking advantage of this, the solitary :
ashore made one more effort !
She waded out into the water, every ,
irop of which, as it struck the beech,
became particle of ice, and stretching {
,ut and drawing in her arms, invited, s
~ her gestures, the sailors to throw 6
themselves into the waves, and strive to G
each her. Captain Hackett understood 8
ler. He called to his mate..in the rig !
ng Of the other mast: "It is our last /
,hance. L will try. If live, follow {
ne; if 1 drown, stay where you areW G
With great effort he got off his stiff1y G
roZsn overcoat, paused for one moment /
n silent commehdation of his soul to q
1od, and, throwing himself into the j
waves, struck out for the shore. Abigail !
Becker, breast deep in the surf, awaited g
him. He was almost within her reach ]
when the undertow swept him back I
BY a mighty exertion she caught hold :
# him, bore him in her strong arms out I
II the water, and, laying him down by a
Ter fire, warmed his chilled blood with
opious draughts of hot tea. The mate,
Who had watched the rescue, now fol- L
owed, and the captain, partially restor-
d, insisted upon aiding him. As the
ormer neared the shore, the recoiling t
vater baff1ed him. Captain Hackett t
aught hold of him, but the undertow l.
wept them both away, locked in each \
theirs arms. The brave woman plung v
d after them, and, with the strength of a
giantess, bore them, clinging to each I
ther, to the shore, and up to her fire. e
'he five sailors followed in succession, Fl
nd were all rescued in the same way. t
A few days after, Captain Hackett and d
lis crew were taken off Long Point by v
passing vessel; and Abigail Becker 6
her simple daily duties without a
reaming that she had doue anything fl
enough to win for her t