IDA LEWIS, THE HEROINE OF LIME ROCK LIGHT
This is the story of Ida Lewis, a New England girl who became famous as a lighthouse keeper.
Ida’s father, Captain Lewis, kept the lighthouse on Lime Rock, near Newport in Rhode Island. While Ida was still a young girl, Captain Lewis became a helpless cripple, and the entire care of the light fell upon the daughter.
One stormy day, as Ida was looking out over the water, she saw a rowboat capsize. In a moment, she was in the lifeboat rowing to the spot. There, in the high waves, three young men were struggling for their lives. Somehow, Ida got them all safely aboard her boat and rowed them to Lime Rock.
That was the first of her life-saving ventures. Before she was twenty-five years old there were ten rescues to the credit of this brave girl.
Ida did not seem to know fear. She risked her life constantly. Whenever a vessel was wrecked or a life was in danger within sight of her lighthouse, Ida Lewis and her lifeboat were always the first to go to the rescue.
One wintry evening in March, 1869, came the rescue that made Ida famous throughout the land.
She was nursing a severe cold, and sat toasting her stockinged feet in the oven of the kitchen stove. Around her shoulders her mother had thrown a towel for added warmth.
Outside the lighthouse a winter blizzard was blowing, churning the waters of the harbor and sending heavy rollers crashing against the rock.
Suddenly above the roar of the tempest, Ida heard a familiar sound—the cry of men in distress.
Even a strong man might have thought twice before risking his life on such a night—but not Ida Lewis.
Without shoes or hat, she threw open the kitchen door and ran for the boat.
“Oh, don’t go!” called her mother; “it is too great a risk!”
“I must go, mother!” cried the brave girl, running faster.
“Here’s your coat,” called her mother again.
“I haven’t a moment to spare if I am to reach them in time!” cried Ida, pulling away at the oars.
She had only a single thought. Human life was in danger. Her path of duty led to the open water.
Strong though she was, it was a hard struggle to make headway against those terrible waves. Time and again she was driven back. But she would not give up. At last she guided her boat to the spot where the voices were still crying for help.
There she found two men clinging to the keel of a capsized boat. They were almost exhausted when she helped them to safety in her lifeboat.
The men were soldiers from Fort Adams, across the bay. Returning from Newport at night, they were caught in the gale and their frail boat was upset.
“When I heard those men calling,” said Ida, in telling about it afterwards, “I started right out just as I was, with a towel over my shoulders.
“I had to whack them on the fingers with an oar to make them let go of the side of my boat, or they would have upset it. My father was an old sailor, and he often told me to take drowning people in over the stern; and I’ve always done so.”
The story of Ida’s heroic deed sent a thrill of admiration across the country. The soldiers of the fort gave her a gold watch and chain. The citizens of Newport, to show their pride in her, presented her with a fine new surfboat. This boat was christened the “Rescue.” The legislature of Rhode Island praised her for bravery; and the humane and life-saving societies sent her gold and silver medals.
Best of all, Congress passed a special act, making her the official keeper of Lime Rock Lighthouse in place of the father who had died some years before.
For over fifty years she held this position. It was her duty to trim the lamps every day, and to keep them burning brightly every night. Not once in all that half century did the light fail to shine and guide ships in safety. When an old lady, Ida Lewis was asked if she was ever afraid.
“I don’t know that I was ever afraid,” she replied; “I just went, and that was all there was to it. I never even thought of danger.
“If there were some people out there who needed help,” she said, pointing across the water, “I would get into my boat and go to them, even if I knew I could not get back. Wouldn’t you?”
Do you wonder that Ida Lewis was called the heroine of Lime Rock Light?