12 For a Decent Burial

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the greatness of the human spirit is never = better demonstrated than when people go to extraordinary lengths to make sacrifices for the sake of others. The God-like qualities that all men created in His image are said to possess are never more clearly revealed than when men show themselves ready to lay down their lives for their friends—and often = for their foes. In war and peace men and women of every nationality display unmatched courage and self-sacrifice by tossing their very existence into t= he scale to save another from death or injury. But to what heights of nobility= can men be said to have climbed when they risk life and limb with no tho= ught or award or recognition, not to rescue men from drowning, but simply to give drowned men a decent burial?

This has happened not once but several times in Newfoundland. Perhaps the most thrilling occasion was in December, 1903. On Friday, Decem= ber 3rd, the little Danish schooner Sigrid was coming "up the South= ern Shore" heading for St. John's. The 80-ton Sigrid, in command of Captain N. Petersen, was well-known in the Newfoundland trade, her agents in the capital being the firm of A. S. Rendell & Company. Already that year she had brought a load of sugar to the firm of A. H. Murray, and a month la= ter went to Bonavista to take a salt fish cargo to Europe for the firm of P. Templeman. She had a good run across the Atlantic, had finished with her fi= sh cargo in September, and sailed again to Carthagena, Spain. She left there on November 7th in ballast and three days later was reported at Gibraltar en r= oute to Newfoundland for a second charter.

From Gibraltar to Cape Race in something over twenty days is good sailing for a fore-and-aft schooner westward across the Atlantic Ocean in l= ate autumn and Captain Petersen must have been pleased with his little ship. She was seen in several places as she cruised along, and the lightkeeper at Fer= ryland Head, William Costello, reported seeing the lights of a vessel going past offshore about eleven o'clock the same night. He saw the lights when the ha= ze lifted a few moments as the vessel was passing on the back of Crow Island, which lies between Aquaforte and Freshwater, Ferryland.

About the same time residents of "The Pool," near Ferryland, said they distinctly heard the noise of slatting canvas and the bracing of yards, as a vessel altered course coming out of the haze with Ferryland light in view. People judged she was then not more than a half or three-quarters of a mile from the mainland, in which case she must have passed quite close to Crow Island. Since the vessel was not hailed, and made no signals, it was merely presumed from what later transpired, that she was the ill-fated Sigrid.<= o:p>

Northeast winds had prevailed on the coast from the end of November,= but suddenly between ten and eleven o'clock that Friday night, the wind veered = to the south-southeast and blew a hurricane. It is assumed—an assumption based on knowledge of tides, wind and weather and deductions made by fisher= men and ocean-going mariners—that the little Danish schooner was caught on the bad leeshore by the sudden gale and flung into a gulch in Ferryland Hea= d by the mountainous seas that quickly rose.

At eight a.m. Saturday, lightkeeper Costello was disturbed to see a number of barrels and other evidence of a wreck tossing about in the waters= of Ferryland "Motion." At once he spread the alarm through the settlement and very soon every able-bodied man in the vicinity was hurrying= to the edge of the cliffs overlooking Flat Point, south-southwest of the light, where the wreck had been located. They brought lines and other lifesaving equipment to aid possible survivors, but as they looked down they could see no sign of people in the wreck or on the rocky ledges of the precipitous cliffs.

The seas were surging in, buffeting the hulk, and striking the rocks with a for= ce that sent spray flying over the watchers on the clifftop and drenching them= to the skin. Wind and sea blew and roared with such force and din that the would-be rescuers could scarcely hear one another speak. Suddenly one man b= egan to make vigorous gestures and point below. The others craned forward and, a= s a particularly big wave receded, they saw a body.

It was wedged-between some boulders about halfway between high- and low-water mark, and was evidently the body of one of the crew of the ill-starred vessel. The foreshore on which the body lay sloped gradually up= ward for about three-quarters of its distance, then began a steep and rugged asc= ent. From the surface of the water to the summit of the cliff the distance and height was roughly eighty feet, and the seas as they thundered ashore would surge up the incline, sometimes as far as sixty feet, making a frightening turmoil below the watchers. Since the man was obviously dead, and no living survivors could be seen, the Ferryland men might well have been excused for turning their backs on the sad scene and going home till the weather improv= ed.

But not the Ferryland men! There and then they agreed an effort shou= ld be made to recover the body and give it a decent, Christian burial. Volunte= ers were called for the incredibly dangerous task, and were readily forthcoming. James Keefe, John W. Costello, son of the lightkeeper, and James Keough, so= n of the former assistant lightkeeper, instantly stepped forth. All three were strapping, young fishermen, in the prime of their physical strength and manhood.

Costello and Keough were both single men, but Keefe was married with a young family. They fully realized the risk involved in the undertaking, yet they did not shrink from the attempt which they plainly regarded as a sacred Christian duty— to bury the dead. To avoid being hampered in the performance of that duty they stripped off their coats and vests in the freezing, December morning, and with ropes fastened about their waists by their neighbours, prepared to make the perilous descent.

The ropes used were second-hand, half-inch bass, the only kind available; but the knowledge that this was not the strongest material on wh= ich to rest their limbs and lives in no way deterred them from going ahead with their humane resolve. They were also well aware that, even if the ropes hel= d, they might easily be caught by the inrushing seas and dashed to death again= st boulders or cliffs; they realized the ropes could be cut through by sharp rocks, and they could be carried away and drowned; they knew the ropes might burst under their weight and the weight of the corpse while being hauled up= the cliff-face, and the rescuers be killed in the fall. But they did not hesita= te. Not even the thought of the mangled remains they would have to carry up dau= nted their bold hearts.

So their noble resolve is implemented, and on the wild, cliff-edge almost a hundred feet above the storm-tossed ocean the three young men, with ropes of inferior material under their armpits, wait to be let down into the abyss. Below them, intermittently buried by the white-lathered surf is the object of their chivalrous essay—a body—not of a living man—but a shattered corpse. Their Christian conscience and sensibilit= ies have spurred them on to recover the corpse so that it may be decently inter= red. The body, which they discover later is the captain of the Sigrid, li= es jammed between some boulders, almost midway on the incline of the seascoured landwash that slopes over fifty feet from cliff-face to low water.

The men could only be lowered as the seas receded. They had to depend on the alertness and strength of their friends on the cliff-top to gauge the speed= and power of the waves, and pick the right time. When they reached the slope be= low the cliff they had to creep down it over slippery rocks and run back up aga= in as the waves rushed in. The Ferryland men made over fifty attempts to reach the body wedged in the crevice, and frequently they were submerged in= the icy water.

Sometimes when they could not move fast enough to escape the reach of the sea their helpers had to haul up the ropes and hold the men suspended in mid-air above the surf. But at length the body was secured and brought up. = It was in a dreadful state. Costello, Keefe and Keough were completely exhausted after their prodigious efforts, and the great risks run, and had = to be taken to their homes to recuperate.

Apparently most of the Ferryland men went home after this recovery, = but a number remained at the scene in the event that other bodies should come ashore from the wreck. The patience of these watchers was rewarded about th= ree o'clock in the afternoon. A huge sea tumbled aboard the Sigrid = and as it swept on into the cove, the men saw a body shoot about twenty feet in= the air, and fall in upon the rocks where it remained. Obviously another follow= ing sea might just as easily carry it off again, and the men on the cliff-top m= ade a quick decision to go down and recover it.

The new crew of volunteers numbered Thomas Sullivan, Daniel and Robert Keefe who clambered down the treacherous incline in awesome danger, and reached the b= ody. Just as they were about to grasp it, another immense wave sluiced up the landwash and for a fearful moment it seemed that all four—the living = and the dead—would be hurled willy-nilly to their doom. Apparently they w= ent down without even the doubtful security of the bass ropes for the account s= ays that a rope was hurriedly flung to them. They seized it, then clutched the = body and held it firmly, as another sea smothered them.

Four other men, James Kavanagh, James Reid, Peter Barnable and Robert Shannahan, fearing the three heroic rescuers would be lost, scrambled down = the cliff to their aid. With the added assistance they brought up the second co= rpse which like the first was horribly mangled. Time passed, the watch on the cl= iff continued, and about an hour later a third body was thrown ashore from the wreck. It was actually only a part of a body that could be seen rolling aro= und in the surf. It was impossible for the intrepid men to reach it and they ha= d to use jiggers with great patience for more than an hour till it was also secu= red. Handling the remains was a gruesome task and they had to be wrapped in canv= as before being brought up the cliff.

Most of the Ferryland men had been on the cliff since eight o'clock = that Saturday morning without a morsel of food, and drenched and frozen in the December weather. When darkness closed in and nothing further could be done they returned home. Early Sunday morning, however, they went out again to t= he scene of the wreck where they remained during that day. Late that afternoon they discovered another body—the fourth—but had to wait till Mo= nday to try and secure it. Jiggers and grapnels were used but all the lines burst and William Carter went back into Ferryland and got new Manila rope and more grapnels. The body was afoul of some wreckage, and they had managed to get = it free when darkness fell and they had to quit. Tuesday they tried again and succeeded in bringing up the dead seaman.

It was generally believed that body was the last of the vessel's complement; b= ut there was one more to come which brought the recovery of the bodies from th= e Sigrid to an unparalleled high point of heroism. The fourth and fifth bodies w= ere located at a different point- of the shore where the cliff was well over two hundred feet high, and almost sheer, and the fifth corpse was secured by al= most superhuman measures on the part of Daniel Keefe. Jiggers had hooked into the body but the lines were too frail to bear the weight and it was then that K= eefe showed the kind of man he was. It was simply awe-inspiring to look down the precipice with the tumultuous ocean beneath, but Keefe volunteered to go. W= ith a rope under his armpits and a boat-hook in his hands to fend himself off f= rom the cliff, he boldly went down.

He took a jigger with a light Manila rope attached which, with the l= ines already attached to the body, should be able to bear the weight. Keefe was = let down the cliff-face and hooked the jigger into the body which was that of a= coloured man. He was then drawn up with the battered remai= ns using the boat-hook to save himself and the body from being dashed against = the cliff. At last he stood in safety on the top and the task was pronounced finished.

During the recovery of the bodies, which covered a period of four days, there were many times when the older and less agile men v/ere of the opinion that the rescuers were far too bold, that they were headstrong and even rash. But fortune favours the brave, or more truthfully Providence watched over the Ferryland men in their truly Christian—al= most sacrificial—undertaking. Except for a column in the St. John's newspa= pers the Ferryland heroes received no recognition for their incomparable feat.

Their descendants may find some satisfaction in this belated tribute and all read= ers cannot help but be moved deeply by the tale of these noblemen (and for once that is the right use of the word) who risked certain death not to rescue living men from the sea but to give drowned men decent burial.