Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-05-09
The Heroine Of Lake Erie.

The dark. stormy close of November,
1874 eonrd many vessels on Lake Ere,
INIT the fortunes OF one alone have
snecial interest for US. About that tune
the schooner Conductor, owned by John
Mcleod of the Providential Parliament,
resident of Amherstburg, at the mouth
of the Detroit river, entered the lake
from that river, bound for Port Dal-
bousie at the mouth of the Welland
cana. She was heavily loaded with grain.
Her crew consisted of Capt Haekett,
a Highlander by birth, and a skilltul
and experienced navigator, and SIX sail
.ors. At nightfall, shortly after leaving
the bead of the lake, one OF those
terrific storms, with which the late
autumual navigators of that " Sea OF
the woods" are all too familiar, overlook
them. The weather was intensely cold
far the season the air was filled with
Sno;v and sleet; the chilled water made
ice rapilly, eneumbering the schooner,
and loading down her decks and rigging.
As the gale incraased, the tops OF the
waves were shorn of by the fierce blasts,
cloudipg the whole atmosphere with
frozen spray, or what the sailors call
" spoon-drift," rendering 1t Impossible
to see any object few rods distant.
Driving helplessly before the wind, yet
in the direction Of Its place Of destlna-
ton. the schooner sped through the
darkness. At last, near midnight, run
ming 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 deeper
water between it and the inner bar. The
, hull was entirely submerged, the waves
rolling in heavily, and dashlng over the
rigging, to which the crew betook them
selves. Lashed there, numb with cold,
drenched by the pitiless waves, and
scoufged by the showers Of sleet driven
beiore the wind, they waited for morn
inc The slow, dreadful hours wore
away. and at length the dubious and
doubtful gray o. a morning OF tempest
succeeded to the utter darkness Of night.
Abigail Becker CHANGED at that time
70 be in her hut with none but her
Young children. Her husband was alb
sent on the Canada shore, and she Vas
left the sole adult occupant OF the island,
save the light keeper at its lower end,
some fifteen miles of. 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 the
neigbborhood human life had been, OF
still was, in peril. She followed the
southwesterly trend of the island for
little distance, and peering through the
gloom of the stormy morning, dlscerned
the spars of the sunken schooner, with
what seemed to be human forms cling
;ro to the rigging. The heart Of the
tom. woman sunk within her, as she
oezed upon those helpless fellow
Creatures. so near, yet so unaPproachable
She had no boat, and nOne could have
lived on that wild water. After
rnomeuts reflection she went back tC
her dwelling, put the smaller children
in charge Of the eldest, took with hel
an iron keetle, tin teapot, aHq matches
and returned to the beach, at the near-
est point to the vessel; and, gathered
mn the logs and drift-wOod, always
abundant on the coast, kindled a greai
FIRE. and. constantly walking back and
forth between it and the water, strove t
intimate to the sufferers that they Ser'
at least not beyond human sympathy
As the wrecked sailors looked shore
v.rd and saw, through the thick haz'
of snow and sleet, the red light Of th'
ere and the tall figure of the woman
RAISING to and fro before it, faint hop'
took the place of the utter despair
which had prompted them to let 60 theI
hold. and drop into the seething waters
that opened and closed about them lik'
the laws Of death. But the day wor
On bringing no abatement of the storm
that tore through the frail spars, an,
.Iutehed at and tossed them as it passed
ana drencbed them with icy-cold spra..
"A pitiless. unrelenting horror of sight
sound and touch At last the deepehipy
oloom told them that night was ap
5roaching. and night under such eircum
stances was death.
An day long Abigail Becker had fe'
her FIRE. and saught to induce the sailor
INV sigpals-for even her strong vOic
could not reach them-to throw them
selves into the surf, and trust to ProVi
deuee aud her for succor. In anticipa
+ion ef this she had her tea read y mad
for restoring warmth and life to th
L.lf-frozen survivors. But either the
S;d ,,ot understand her, or the charS
g -es,ue seemed too small to Undue
tbs,n 70 abandon the temporary safety c
tbo wreck. They clung to 1t with tn
Sasnerate Az instinct of life brought face t
Ssca With death. just at nightfall ther
was a slight break in the west re
T;obt olared across the thick AR, as
fo1 one instant the eye of the storl
looked out upon the ruin it had wrOugh
and closed again under lids Of elou'
Taking advantage of this, the solitaT
watcher ashore made one mere efor
She waded out into the water, ever
dron Of which, as il struck the beaei
l rorticIe of ice. aud stTetehln