Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-09-07
SAVING LIFE BY A ROCKET

A DEAL of work has to be done in
behalf of humanity by both public and
| private benevolence. Did you ever
| think what a world it would be if Man
left Man to himself?
But the fact is that after all the self
ishness, and after all the crime, Man
is a good fellow, Man is splendid fell
low! He is always banding himself
with other fine fellows, to do one no
bic thing or another.
Are we not all proud of the fire
companies? And those of us who
know, are we not proud of our water
| companies? Water companies the
sea-coast folks know what I mean. I
do believe that every man, woman and
child on the rocky, cliffy coasts of En-
gland have had their dispositions en-
nobled by the establishment in their
midst of the Life-Boat and the Rocket
| Stations.
Just think what those Northumber-
land girls did-tWo little girls and one
big One-last January, when the Swed-
ish steamer Gustave was wrecked !!
| What did they do? Listenl
/ am told that along that dreadful
coast, from the North Foreland to the
Firth of Forth, there is not one mar
Dor Of refuge-a most terrible place
for ship to be driven ashore!
| 1t was in the morning, long before
day-break, i'll the midst of an icy
storm. The ship was stove up, the
boats were crushed in the breakers,
there was not ray Of hope, only from
the little fishing village on the cliffs.
Little! / should think it was; only ff-
teen adult male inhabitants! But
| they had a life-boat, and the entire
| village turned out in the dark and the
| storm, men, women, little boys and
girls. 1t took thirteen of the men to
man the boat; and the two old
men that were left, and all the women
and children had to wade out into the
| water to push the boat af1oat.
The life-boat men worked an hour,
| but they couldn't get near the ship.
and had to come back, and wait and
watch their chance to try again. It
was so hopeless they wanted to send to
| the rocket station for the rocket appa-
ratus. But that was five miles up the
coast, and none Of the men could be
spared from the boat.
Then up spoke little girl, her petit
coats wet to the waist, for she had been
in the water pushing the boat:
"PH gor'
"And [ toor' cried little Margaret
Brown.
"Then I'll go with them,'' said the
big girl, Isabella Armstrong.
She was twenty, but the others were
"real truly" little girls.
Off they rushed along the beach in
their wet skirts, through the dark and
the storm, wading through ever so
many bays, tumbling and slipping, but
finally reaching the Life-Saving Sta
ton, where they aroused the rocket
cart men, and then made their way
back again. It isn't at all strange to
read that they were laid up in bed next
day with cramps" is it?
Before the rockets arrived the life
boat had succeeded, and got the crew
off, every onel
Do you wonder how they expected
to save the men with rockets? Have
you supposed the only use of rockets
was to make grand Fourth of July,
or possibly to serve as signals in times
of war?
Well, let us see. / cannot copy for
you the long scientific article | read in
a foreign magazine the other day, but
IN few words | can tell you what |
learned about this matter.
The men of the Life-Saving Stations
employ rockets to convey ropes on
board those wrecked ships which the
llfe-bOat cannot reach. Often the
shore is rocky, the sea beating up
against high steep cliffs from which
boats cannot be launched. Often, too,
the breakers roll so high, or the water
Is so ''shoal,' the boat cannot be float
ed. Then the help must be sent
through the air or not at all; and
II the ship is within 800 yards of
shore, and il the wind does not blow
too furioEsly, and if there should be
rockets enough for repeated trials,
they can nearly always establish COM
municatiOn.
Don't you see that if line is at
tached to the rocket. and the rocket