Notable Shipwrecks, Retold by Uncle Hardy

Front Cover
General Books LLC, 2013 - 84 pages
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ...righted, and pushed off with sixteen persons in her. Mrs. McLennan and her child were this time more fortunate, and obtained seats in her. From a Mr. Glennie, who was also one of the rescued, a full account was obtained of the adventures of the party. Having cleared the ship, they drifted astern rapidly. The ship was going then about eight knots an hour. In common with the lifeboat, the pinnace was in imminent peril of swamping, more from inability to handle her, however, than from the violence of the sea. A spar towed astern steadied the boat, and something like system was observed. Through a vast hole in the "Amazon's" hull Mr. Glennie could make out the glowing machinery, and he fancied he could see the brave captain and Mr. Warburton on the after-part of the deck. Mrs. McLennan's shawl, hoisted on a couple of boat hooks, served the purpose of a sail, a blanket being given by one of the sailors to the lady in exchange. The pinnace had left the "Amazon" less than half an hour when she was in a blaze from stem to stern. Drenched, hungry, and ill-clad, the people in the pinnace suffered severely from cold. At dawn they almost gave themselves up for lost on discovering a leak, which defied their attempts at baling. Stone, one of the engineers, however, with a portion of his clothing, stopped the hole, and the two oars were pulled with new vigour. Mrs. McLennan did her part, and a valuable part too it was under such circumstances, by bidding her companions be of good cheer. On Sunday morning as the sun rose high they fancied they descried a sail, and this gave the rowers strength for another hour's hard work; but not a speck appeared on the horizon. The sun was directly overhead when another cry of "a sail..".

Other editions - View all

Bibliographic information