The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-03-10
The Heroine of Lake Erie.
BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.

The dark, stormy close OF November,
1854, found many vessels on Lake Erie
but the fortul es Of one alone have special
interest for us. About that time che
Schooner Conductor, owned by 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 tn Welland Canal She
was heavily loaded with grain Her
crew consisted Of Captain Hackett, a
| Highlander by birth, and skillful and
! Inexperienced navigator, and six sailors.
At nightfall, shortly after leaving the
head Of the lake, one of those terrific
storms, with which the late autumuai
navi gators Of that ''Gea OF the Woods 2
are all too familiar, overlook them. The
weather was int nsely cold for the season;
the air was filled 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
we're shorn off Ivy the fierce blasts, cloud
! ing the whole atmosphere with frozen
!
Ldrtft, rendering it impossible to see any
0 ,ject a few rods distant Driving help
leosly be ore the wind, yet III the direc-
jon Of it's place Of d stinatlaD, the
schooner sped through the darkness. Al
last, near midnight, raining closer thar
her crew supposed to the Canadian Shore,
she struck oil the outer bar IF long P1.nt
1 island, Beat heavily across 1t, and sunk
N the deeper, witer between it and The
nntr bar The hull was entirely sub
merged, the waves rolling In heavily,
lanI dashing oyer the rigging, to which
! the crew betook themselves. Lashed
there, numb with cold, drenched by thu
| pitiiess waves, and scourged by the show
ers of sleet driven before the wind, they
waited tor morning The slow dreadful
hours wore away and at length, the du
bions and doubtful gray of a morning of
tempest succeeded to the utter darkness
4, of night.
Abigail Becker CHARGED at that time 10
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 day
light on the beach in front of her door
she saw the shattered boat OF the con
duct or, cast up by the waves. Her expe-
rience OF storm and disaster on that
dangerous coast needed nathing more to
convince her that somewhere in her
neighborhood human life had been, or
still was in peril She followed the
southwesterly bend of the island for a
| 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 up
on those helpless fellow creatures, 50
near, yet so pporachable.-Sh had
no boat and none could have lived on
that wild water After 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 driftwood
| always abundant on the coast, kindled a
great fire, and constantly walking back
and forth between it and the water,
stroye 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
| the fire, and the tall figure of the woman
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 item like the
jaws Of death But the day wore on,
bringing no abatement of the storm that
tore through the frail spars, and clutched
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 deepening
gloom told them that night was approach
Ing, and night under such circumstances
was death
All day long Abigail Becker had fed
her fire, and sought to induce the sailors
by signals-tor even her strong voice
could not reach them--to throw them
selves into the surf, and trust to Frovi-
dence and her for succor. In anticipa-
tion of this, she had her kettle boiling
over the drift-wood, and her tea ready.
made for restoring warmth and life to
the half-frozeu survivors, But either
they did not understand her, or the
chance of rescue seemed too small to in
duce them to abandon the temporary
safety of the wreck. They chung to it
with the desperate instinct of lie bro,t
face to face with death Just at night
fall there was slight break in the west /;
a red light glared across the thick air,
as if for one instant the eye of the storm
looked out upon the ruin it had wrought,
and closed again under the lids of cloud.
Taking advantage of this, the solitary
watcher ashore made one more effort