Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-09-27
A HEROINE OF SIXTEEN.
Emily Lacy's Extraordinary Swim from
the Ouetta.

I
L. T. Meade in Woman
| In the history of this century there has
perhaps, never been known an instance o
greater courage, endurance and pluck thar
that shown by Emily Lacy, a young CIR
under sixteen years of age, at the time o
the wreck of the Quota. As Miss Lac,
is related to some personal friends of my
own, have asked permission to publish :
few more particulars about her. She anC
her younger sister, aged thirteen, were
coming to England to complete their edu.
cation. When the crash came, Emily i'm
mediately rushed to the cabin to try ant
rescue her younger sister, and the two sue
ceeded in reaching the deck, where, how
ever, they were at once separated, and
they never met afterward Miss Lucy
says that as the vessel was going down q
gentleman in whose care the girls were
said to her: "You look after yourself, and
l will take care of May" Both this gen.
tleman, however, and the little sister were
drowned.
when we got aft" she writes. "the
ship suddenly went down. and as / was
drinking in the salt water | thought was
going to be drowned But | came up
again and was surrounded by Cingalese
and sheep. l felt myself being pressed
down by them; it was terrible. Then
saw raft short distance out, and was
dragged on to it by the purser, who was
very kind to me. We were attached to a
bigger raft, crowded with Cingalese.
When We got away some distance. as the
Cingalese became very noisy, we cut our
raft adrift, and | remained on her with the
purser for long time, till we were, as
thought, two miles from shore; and, as he
told me he could not swim, left him and
swan for the shore, but did rot reach it,
as it was so far away. | went on swim
ming toward the land, and saw another
raft, on which we're two Cingalese, to
which made my way, and got to it; but,
as they were very rude and excited, and !
thought they might be drunk, | left it,
and took to swimming again"
When lifted out of the water she could
not have kept up for another half hour.
She was quite without clothes, and burned
nearly black with the sun. Before lifting
her out of the water sailor threw his
jacket over her, and then laid her tenderly
in the bottom of the boat. For twenty
consecutive hours she had been swimming
and floating, sometimes on her back, some
times on her side. She spoke of the heat
as so intense that she had continually to
keep her head under water to escape sun
stroke. She said that she had never any
conscious fear of death, either from drown
ing, or from worse and more terrible
enemy, sharks. but she often felt her
powers of endurance giving way, and it
was only the thought of the agony her
death would have caused her parents
which enabled the heroic girl to continue
her exertions The wreck took place at 8
P. NJ. on Friday, February 18th, and Miss
Lacy was not rescued until s o'clock on
Sunday morning. Twelve hours out of
that time she spent with the chief officer,
Grey, who had got on a raft. As he could
not swim, the brave girl swan by the side
of the raft aud tried TO tow it toward land.
Finding, however, that she was making no
progress, she left him, hoping to reach
land, which did not seem far away, and so
get food and water for herself and him.
She soon, however, got into cross currents,
and when the Albatross rescued her she
was drifting out to sea. Miss Lacy is now
recovering from the fearful shock she has
undergone, and has before now returned
to her home. She expressed great dread
of going on the water, and it is scarcely
likely that the intrepid girl will ever visit
England.