AN HEROIC WOMAN.
Every boy and girl should learn to swim. When one recalls how easilythe art is acquired, and the many occasions that are liable to arise,we cannot but wonder that the accomplishment is so universallyneglected by the other sex. It is pleasant to note, however, thatswimming is growing to be popular among women, and the day is not fardistant, when the majority of young ladies will become the rivals oftheir brothers in their ability to keep their heads above water.
Torres Strait separates Australia from Papua or New Guinea; andconnects the Arafura Sea on the west, with the Coral Sea on the east.Its current is swift and the waters from time immemorial have beendangerous to navigation. It has been the scene of many shipwrecks, andit is only a few months since that the steamer _Quetta_ was lost inthose waters. One hundred and sixteen persons perished on thatterrible night in the South Pacific, but among the survivors was MissLacy, whose experience was not only among the most interesting andthrilling ever recorded, but emphasizes the statement we have made atthe opening of our sketch.
Miss Lacy says she was sitting in the saloon, engaged in writing aletter, the other ladies practicing for a concert which it was intendedto give on shipboard. Everything was going along, merrily, and allwere in high spirits, when, without the least warning, they werestartled by a harsh, grating noise, the steamer rocked violently, andnearly every one was thrown into the wildest panic.
The confusion and shouts above showed that some fearful disaster hadoccurred. Instantly Miss Lacy made a rush for the deck to learn whatit meant. Quick as were her movements, she found the ship was alreadysinking. Going aft was like climbing a steep hill, but she saw thatone portion was high above water, and she struggled bravely to reachit. But, so rapidly did the _Quetta_ go down that she had hardly goneforward, when the steamer was swallowed up in the furious waters.
That which followed is beyond description. In an instant, two hundredhuman beings were struggling frantically, shrieking in their terror forthe help which was nowhere to be found, clutching each other, prayingand drowning by the score.
Miss Lacy was caught in this fearful swirl, and was in imminent dangerof being dragged down by those around her, who were crazed by the onewild, despairing hope of saving themselves, no matter at what cost.But she was a powerful swimmer, and retaining her self-command, sheshook herself free of several who attempted to cling to her. Thewhirlpool caused by the sinking of the steamer pulled her beneath thewater, but, with the same wonderful presence of mind she had shown fromthe first, she fought her way to the surface, and swam from thedangerous spot.
Finding herself her own mistress, and fully aware that her life nowdepended on her ability to swim, she removed all her superfluousclothing and moved hither and thither in the darkness, in the hope ofcoming upon some of the survivors.
It was about midnight, that she heard some one shout. The gloom wastoo powerful for her to distinguish anything, but she swam toward thepoint, whence the call issued, and came upon a raft, that had beenhastily thrown together by the chief officer of the _Quetta_. Severalpersons were clinging to it, and she accepted the invitation to availherself of the temporary refuge and give her weary limbs a rest.
The dismal hours wore slowly away, and at last the growing light in theeastern sky told that the longed-for day was breaking. As soon as therays of the sun illumined the wild waste of waters, every eye scannedthe ocean in quest of some sail; but on every side was the vast heavysea, with no sign of life except on the little raft. It was water,water everywhere, with not a drop to drink nor a morsel of food to eat,and with no prospect of escaping a lingering death of the mostdistressing nature.
The discouraging feature of the situation to Miss Lacy was that theirrude support was making no progress at all. They had no means ofpropelling it, and, had they possessed such means, no one knew whatcourse to follow. It looked as if days and nights must be passed onthe raft, until one by one the survivors succumbed or ended theirsufferings by plunging into the sea which they had striven so hard toescape.
Far away, however, on the verge of the horizon, an object rose dimly toview, which, after carefully studying for some time, the shipwreckedpeople agreed was a small island, but, as we have stated, they werepowerless to propel their craft thither, and could only gaze and sighfor the refuge that was as much beyond their reach, as though it were athousand leagues distant.
"I am going to swim to it!" exclaimed Miss Lacy.
"Are you mad?" demanded the astonished chief-officer; "it is utterlyimpossible."
"I prefer to risk it rather than remain here."
"But it is much further off than it seems to be; these waters are fullof sharks and you will never live to swim half the distance. Dismissthe idea at once."
"Good-by!"
And the brave woman took a header into the sea, and with a longgraceful stroke, that compelled the admiration of every one of theamazed survivors, began swimming toward the supposed refuge.
But the chief-officer knew more about the difficulties in her way thanshe did. She grievously miscalculated the distance, and, though shewas a swimmer of amazing skill and endurance, she began to believe shehad undertaken a task beyond her power of accomplishment.
She swam directly toward the island, husbanding her strength like awise person, but making steady progress, until before the afternoon washalf gone, she knew she had placed many a long mile behind her. Whenshe looked back she could see nothing of the raft and her friends, butas she rose on the crest of an immense swell, she plainly discerned theisland. It still was in the verge of the horizon, and it was hard forher to see that she was apparently no nearer to it than when shestarted.
Besides this alarming fact, she was threatened by a still greaterperil. As the chief-officer had warned her, the waters abounded withsharks, of the man-eating species, who were liable to dart forward andseize her at any moment; but, in recalling her extraordinaryexperience, Miss Lacy says that at no time did she feel any fear ofthem. She knew they were liable to discover her at any moment, butthey did not, and fortunately indeed she escaped their ferocious jaws.
Her greatest suffering was from the blazing sun, whose rays shotdownward upon her head with pitiless power. When she found her braingrowing dizzy, she averted the danger of sunstroke by dropping orswimming for some distance below the surface. This always cooled orrefreshed her, though she felt her face and neck blistering under thefierce rays.
In striving to recall her experience, Miss Lacy is unable to remember alarge portion of the time she spent in the water. She believes sheslept for several hours. What an extraordinary situation! Alone inthe midst of the vast strait in the southern Pacific, surrounded bysharks, with no friendly sail in sight, and yet slumbering andunconscious.
Of course she was not swimming all this time. When she found herselfgrowing weary, she floated on her back for long periods, then propelledherself first upon one side and then upon the other, and all the timethe dim misty object in the distance remained as far away as ever.Finally, when she raised her head and looked for it, she was dismayedat being unable to detect it at all. It had vanished.
Then she knew that it had been an optical delusion from the first.There was no island or land in sight. She was alone on the vast deep.
But the heroic woman did not despair. After she had been in the watertwenty hours altogether, and was in the last stage of exhaustion, shewas picked up by a boat belonging to the search steamer _Albatross_.For several hours succeeding her rescue she was delirious, but it wasnot long before she was entirely herself, having given a signal proofof the value of swimming as a lady's accomplishment.
The Jungle Fugitives: A Tale of Life and Adventure in India Page 33