PRESENCE OF MIND IN SHIPWRECK.

Patea Mail, 2 June 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

PRESENCE OF MIND IN SHIPWRECK.

Off the coast of Wigtownshire, earlyon a cloudless summer morning, when the sea was as still as glass, the steamer Orion, plying between Hull and Greenock, steered too near the shore, ran on a sunk rock, sprang a leak, and sank within a few minutes. Only one accidental watcher on the shore, where the homes were still shut up and the inhabitants sunk in sleep, saw the disaster, and under the circumstances, assistance could not be given in time to prevent the loss of many lives. Among the passengers was a girl coming: alone from her English school to her family in Scotland. SKe liad sat with, others on the deck the evening before, and listened to travellers’ tales of adventure, peril, and death by drowning, which sounded like experiences far removed from the prosperous, summer voyagers. One fact mentioned in her hearing was that if a drowning man or woman can remain perfectly still the body will, by a law of nature, float on the surface of the water so long as life is left in it. She was startled from sleep after sunrise by the force of the blow, and the shiver with which the vessel siruck and settled on the rock. She ran on deck in her night-dress with many of the passengers. She got a cloak from a gentleman, whom she asked to put her into the water. She lay for half-an-hour before she was taken up, when the breast of the cloak was found perfectly dry. She had not stirred, hand or foot from the moment that she was in the water. Her .friends hurried to the scene of the terrible calamity the moment the news reached them. They believed that, whoever might have escaped, the young helpless girl, travelling alone, must have perished. They found her safe and uninjured, thanks to her presence of mind and courage. —“ Footprints : Man and Nature ,” bp Sarah jOytler.