Ballads of Brave Deeds By H. D. Rawnsley. With a Frontispiece and Preface by G. F. Watts |
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A Ballad of Port Blair |
 | Ballads of Brave Deeds |  |
A Ballad of Port Blair
On November 1st, 1891, a cyclone swept over Port Blar, the Indian Penal settlement in the Andaman islands. The “Enterprise,” which was lying at her moorings, was caught by the tornado, and at 2 o'clock in the morning of the 2nd broke adrift, and was dashed upon the South Point Reef, where she soon went to pieces.
There were eighty-three souls on board; out of this total only six Lascar seamen were saved. And these were rescued by an admirable act of courage.
Close to the spot where the steamer was driven upon the rocks is a small settlement of female convicts. As the cyclone threatened to destroy the buildings, these women were allowed to go down to the shore.
When the “Enterprise” broke up and the crew were seen struggling in the waves, these brave women formed themselves into a line holding one another by the hand, and so while the one end of this living chain remained on shore, the other reached out far into the surf, ready to seize and help the exhausted survivors.
It is solely to the gallant conduct of these female prisoners that the six survivors owe their lives.
But a stronger chain can be;
The cord of pity, and love that is brave
To cast itself to the teeth of the wave,
The cord of hands, that a moment free
Will weave of them strands to drag from the sea,
And succour shipmen's lives.
Awake each one in her cell;
We felt the hurricane shake the bars,
The doors flung wide; no moon! no stars!
Then forth we hied from our narrow room,
For the warder cried thro' the tempest's gloom,
And the prison rocked and fell.
The air was thick with foam,
We were free once more as the wind, and knew
That its voice we heard and its breath we drew
Would crash the canes at the dawn, and come
With a roar thro' the palms of our long-left home,
And our hearts with the wild wind sang.
And set our bruised feet free;
And our thoughts were as fast as the free-foot wind
To follow far over the waves, and find
Our father's house, and our people's kin,
And the young we had left when we came for our sin
To this sorrowful isle of the sea.
And a ship came plunging by
Mad as the storm—we heard the shock
As it leapt back, pierced to the heart by the rock,
Then stayed,—and we saw the rockets fly,
And knew, by the shipmen's terrible cry,
The coral held it fast.
Though our hands were strong and brave?
The wild winds caught the waves from under,
Hurled at the hull with the rattle of thunder,
And there, at the first fierce glare of day,
We saw the mariners fall away
Like leaves, to their foaming grave.
Spat from the waves in scorn;
Long time had our limbs been numbed by the steel
Of the chain that galled, but our souls could feel—
Ah! how our woman's heart was torn
For the poor bruised bodies cast forth forlorn
To the havoc of hurt and hell!
Of men who still had breath;
And into the rollers we rushed to the waist—
To the chin! what matter if doom be faced!
So long as we weave of our bodies' strand
A cord of help with an outstretched hand,
To drag from the jaws of Death!
Stoned and stung by the swell,
Our battle it seemed a whole life long,
But our hands were free and our hope was strong
And here, as I sit in my convict cell
I know six mariners live to tell
What woman's love can do.
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