The Hero of the Ferndale Disaster
When the British bark Ferndale went down in a freezing storm off the Washington coast, one local woman braved the surf to save the lives of three sailors.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Hoquiam, Jan. 31. — A correspondent visited the scene of the Ferndale disaster today and found the three survivors being cared for in a cabin close to the beach. When the bark went down in the breakers, seventeen of the twenty-man crew were lost. Peter Patterson, a Scotchman and one of the survivors, described the horror: 'I was fast asleep when one of the sailors roused me. On looking out, I could see we were in the breakers. Two of us put on life jackets, while the officers tried to lower the only boat left. The vessel listed and the idea of lowering the lifeboat was abandoned. When the foremast went down with several men, we jumped into the sea.' Mrs. Edward White, who witnessed the wreck from the beach, performed the rescue. She said: 'I watched the shore closely for half an hour when two men drifted near the water's edge, and I rushed in and brought them out. They were completely exhausted. In a few minutes another man approached land and I could see that he was helpless. I went in the water up to my neck, and after a terrible struggle landed him safely.' Her husband helped carry the men to their home to recover. The wreck remains a total loss, and officials are now calling for a permanent life-saving station on the North Beach.
“I went in the water up to my neck, and after a terrible struggle landed him safely.”
The treacherous nature of the Washington coast, particularly the area near Grays Harbor, has claimed countless vessels over the centuries. Mrs. White’s bravery echoes the historical dependence on local citizens to perform rescues before the formalization of the United States Life-Saving Service—the precursor to today's Coast Guard—along the Pacific Northwest shoreline.
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