J. Louis Little, 37, fisherman, helped to save four men, and assisted in an attempt to save two others, from drowning, Bonavista, Newfoundland, September 19, 1907. During a storm at night, a schooner was torn from its moorings in the harbor and wrecked on the rocks that bound it. It went ashore stern foremost and struck between two rocks at the shoreline. The darkness was intense, the wind was blowing 60 m.p.h., and the waves, from 20 to 30 feet high, dashed up on the rocks for a distance of 40 feet. Holding to a line in the hands of fishermen up on a large rock, Little climbed down its steep and dangerous face and attempted to cast the line to the vessel but failed. He hastily scrambled upward to escape an incoming wave, but it caught him and surged up around his knees. He coiled his rope again and, as the water receded, scrambled rapidly down the rough surface until he was right under the stern of the schooner. He cast his line to the deck, 12 feet above, where it was made fast. Little was caught by an incoming wave and, clinging desperately to the rope, was washed into a gulch beside the rock but was pulled back on it. The men left the wreck rapidly, and Little approached close to it and assisted two of them. Several times he narrowly escaped being swept to sea. Two of the vessel’s crew were washed overboard and drowned. 6327-677
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