A BRAVE WOMAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1932, Page 17 (Supplement)

A BRAVE WOMAN.

‘ From the Baltic comes a glorious tale of bravery at sea. A gale struck the Finnish schooner Maine off th® northwest coast of Gothland.- -She was completely disabled, ' and the distracted crew were not able to communicate ■ with the land. Then the captain and the .boatswain, as the best swimmers, undertook to go for help. Bravely they went overboard -into a terrible sea, and struck out for shore. The captain was drowned, but the’ boatswain, after a long struggle, managed to reach shore and drag him-, self to the nearest house. As soon, as possible a band of rescuers was got together, and a fishing smack put out' to the wreckage. ■ ■ The Maine had foundered, and only two living beings remained on the scene. Ono was an unconscious youth and the other a woman,, who was holding him up and clinging ..to th®'mast. As she was lifted into the boat she fainted. For 12 hours she had held up the youth. Her endurance was at an end, and if rescue had not come soon she must have let. go the .mast. She would not save herself ..by dropping the helpless lad. The heroine of this long ordeal is Jenny Wickman. 'She earns her living as .a cook; she has the.simple womanly tastes of a very ordinary per Son, but added to them the. courage of a lion.. If this disaster had not overtaken quiet Jenny, no one would have guessed that she was capable of such great courage. • THE OLD-TIME SMUGGLERS. Boys- and, girls when they, go to the seaside love to hear of the romantic days , when smugglers and pirates were to'be met with at sea, but few of them know. what a, real smuggling lugger was like. There, were, several reasons why the smugglers chose lugger-rigged craft, for their “runs,” the.chief reason 'being that as long as the wind was’ strong and blowing right on to the vessel’s side a lugger would sail faster than a boat of any other rig. Another ■ reason was that the old-time lugger had comparatively low, stumpy masts, and when the sails were lowered they could hardly be seen at a distance. .■ The revenue cutters which used' to chase the smugglers could not equal the lugger’s speed as long as the wind was "abeam” (on the side), so when the naval craft was sighted the smugglers just went off anywhere, so long as they could keep the wind “abeam.” Then after‘nightfall they altered their course and resumed their voyage.