Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-09-12
AHERoINE SIXTEEN.
Miss Emily Lacy's Extraordinary Swim
from the Ouetta-

Miss Emily Lacy's Extraordinary Swim
from she ouetta-
In the history of this century writes L.
T. Meade in Woman) there has. perhaps.
never been known an instance of greater
courage, endurance, and pluck than that
shown by Emily Lacy. young girl under
of the Quota. As Miss Lacy is related to
some personal friends of my own have
asked permission to publish a few more
particulars about her. She and her young
er sister, aged Is, were coming to England
to complete their education. When the
crash came Emily Immediately rushed to
the cabin to try and rescue her younger
sister, and the two succeeded in reaching
the deck, where, however, they were at once
separated, and they never met afterward.
Miss Lacy says that as the vessel was 60
ing down a gentleman in whose care the
girls were Sid to her: You look after
yourself aud | will take care of Nav. -
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 thought was
going to be drowned But | came up
again, and was surrounded by Cingalese
and sheep. 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
Clngalese became very noisy, we cut our
raft airIft, and | remained on her with the
for u Ion - ii
! thought, two miles from shore: and. as he
told me that he could not swim, left him
and swan for the shore, but did not reach
| 1t. as 1t vas so far away. | went on swim.
ming toward the land and saw another
raft, on which were two Cingalese, tc
which | made my way. and got to it; but
as they were very rude and excited.
thought they might be drunk, so | left il
| and took to swimming again"
When lifted out of the water she could
not have kept up for another half hour
| She quite without clothes and burned near.
! ly black with the sun. Before lif ~ heI
out Of the water a sailor threw his Jacket
over her and then laid her tenderIy in the
| bottom of the boat For twenty consecu
! tive hours she had been swimming auG
| floating, sometimes on her back, sometimes
VI III sue OilC ; punt VI tIit Lc'lI It's 81
intense that she had continually to keer
her head under water to escape 0ll>troke
| She says that she had never any conscious
fear of death, either from drowning or from
! a worse and more terrible enemy-sharks
but she often felt her powers of endurance
giving away, and it was only the thought
of the agony her death would have caused
her parents that enabled the heroic girl tc
cont Innp bpr Tho I.rraal- tool
place at 8 p. m. on Friday Feb. 26 anC
! Miss Lacy was not rescued until s O'Clock
on Sunday morning. Twelve hours 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 and tried to tow it toward land
Finding, however, that she was maxim
no progress, she left him, hoping to reacI
land, which did not seem far away, anC
to get food and water for herself and him
She soon, however, got into cross-current.
and when the Albatross rescued her she was
| drifting out to sea.