The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-12-25
! THE HEROINE OF
~ Il. BIRD ROCK.
: Kept the Light Burning Though Her
!: Heart Was Broken.

A WAY out on the waters of the At
~ lantic ocean, where the Gulf of st.
Lawrence opens IFS mouth the widest,
rises a lonely isle from the lonely sea-;
the Great Bird Rock. Its nearest in
habited neighbors are the Magdalen
it is equi-distant from Cape Race, in
Newfoundland, and Capt North, in Cape
Breton.
Like Sable island, off the coast of
Cape Breton. the Great Bird Rock is a
rock of tragedy, but out of its tragedy
has sprung a rare heroism and devotion
to duty on the part of 4 brave m
If you were to take a journey on the
Canadian government lighthouse sup
ply steamer down the st. Lawrence
river to the different stations in the
stormy gulf, you would reach, in its
turn, Great Bird Rock; a massive pima
Gle of granite rising precipitously
from the sea, so precipitously that the
only means of communicating with the
summit of the rock is by a steam hoist
ing apparatus, and in rough weather
even this method is a difficult and dan
gerous one. Nature has provided no
beach for this dome of stone, and its
storm-creased sides sink as perpen-
dicularly into the deep sea as they rise
sheer from it.
Thousands of birds-gannets and
Duffins and other wild sea fOwl-make
The Bird Rock their home, and although
The lighthouse keeper fires off explosive
signals of gun cotton every 20 minutes
during stormy weather, the birds have
become so accustomed to the noise as
to frequent the cliffs in ever increasing
numbers.
Since the Canadian government es-
tablished a light there the Bird Rock
has achieved a very bad reputation and
piled up a long record of disaster and
death. So isolated and lonely is the
spot that the first keeper became a
mailman and, with his assistant, was
removed the next time the supply
steamer called. Imagine the horror of
being imprisoned alone with a iunatic
on a speck of a rock in the broad ocean!
The mex keeper, in company with his
son and assistant, left the island to
hunt seals on the ice. A wind sudden
~ sprang up, the cakes of ice were
broken into small pieces and carried
out to sea, and the father and son were
never heard of again. They mel a ter
rible death through starvation, drown
ing or freezing. Inc assistant managed
to reach shore nearly frozen to death.
Disaster also awaited the third
keeper. for both he and his son were
instantly killed by the explosion of a
keg of gunpowder near the fog can
non. The fourth keeper was nearly
killed by the premature discharge of
the fog gun, and his nephew and two
other men died from exposure while
hunting for seals during the carly
winter of 1861.
Up to this time the Bird Rock had a
record of one case of insanity, seven
deaths and two narrow escapes from
death. But the chief tragedy remains
to be recorded and along with it a tale
of heroic suffering and steadfastness
to duty worthy of an epic.
On May 5, 1897, the Canadian govern
ment steamer Aberdeen, Capt c. T..
Knowlton, hove in sight of Bird Rock.
One can well picture the intense inter
est with which the occupant of the
station would peer through the power
full telescope, and how the heart would
beat with eager hope as the vessel
pointed her prov TO the great frown-
ing cliffs, and as eagerly, knowing the
sad history of the spot, did the captain
sight the surface of the rock high above
the ocean. He had three months previ-
ously left behind him for the lonely
vigil of the late winter months Angus
Campbell, formerly a coasting sailor.
With him was his wife, a handsome,
youthful woman. in the prime of life,
and two male assistants, professional
seal hunters. But 10 the shippers as
constituent he saw a wan. g~ray-haired,
pr~ematurely old woman, standing
ominously alone On the ledge. At last
the boat was within hailing distance
and the captain shouted:
where's the old man?" and in trem-
ulous tones the answer came, so
fraught with sorrow:
ANGUS is dead," and after a pause.
$50 are Jim Duncan and George Bry-
son."
So the Great Bird Rock had added
still another tragedy to its black list;