The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-07-26
A HEROINE OF SIXTEEN.
The Extraordinary Swim From
the Quetta.

The Extraordinary Swim From
| the Quetta.
In the history ofthis century ther'
has, perhaps, never been known al
instance of greater courage, endur
ance and pluck than that shown b.
Emily Lacy, a young girl under
sixteen years of age, at the time o
the wreck of the Quetta. AS Mis-
Lacy is related to some persona
friends of my own I have asked
permission to publish a few more
particulars about her. She and hel
younger sister, aged thirteen, were
coming to England to complete
their education. When the crash
came Emily Immediately rushed to
the cabin to try and rescue hel
younger sister, and the two sue.
ceeded in reaching the deck where
however, they were at once separat.
ed /; and they never met afterward
Miss Lacy says that as the vessel
was going down a gentleman in
whose care the girls were said to
her: "You look after yourself and
I will take care Of May" Both
this gentleman, 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 l
thought l was going to be drowned.
But l came up again and was sur
rounded by Cingalese and sheep.
l felt myself being pressed down by
them; it was terrible. Then l saw
a raft short distance out, and was
dragged on it by the purser, who
was very kind to me. We were at
tached to a bigger raft crowded with
Cingalese. When we got away some
distance, as the Cingalese became
very noisy, we cut our craft adrift,
and l remained on her with the
purser for a long time, till we were,
as l thought, two miles from the
shore; and, as he told me that he
could not swim, l left him and
swan for the shore, but I did not
reach it, as it was SO far away. l
went on swimming toward the land,
and saw another raft, on which
were two Cingalese, to which l 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 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, sometimes
on her side. She spoke of the heat
as SO intense that she had contin-
ually to keep her head under water
to escape sunstroke. She says that
she had never any conscious fear of
death, either from drowning, or
from a worse or more terrible en-
envy, 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 he
roic girl to continue her exertions.
The wreck took place at 8 P. NJ. on
Friday, February 26th, and Miss
Lacy was not rescued until 8 o'clock
on Sunday morning. Twelve hours
out of that time she spent with the
chief officer, Grey, who had got on
raft. AS he could not swim, the
brave girl swan by the side of the
raft and 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-cur-
rents, and when the Albatross re-
scued her she was drifting out to
sea. Miss Lacy is now recovering
from the fearful shock she has un-
dergone, and has before now re-
turned to her home. She expressed
great dread of going again on the
water, and it is scarcely likely that
the intrepid girl will ever visit En-
gland.-G. T. Meade, in Woman.
Antiseptic Value Of Eucalyptus.
A late correspondent of the Selma
Irrigator says: In soaking up old
wine or vinegar casks, we throw a
few blue-gum boughs with their