Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1874 — A Miraculous Preservation. [ARTICLE]

A Miraculous Preservation.

A correspondent of the London Timet, writing from -Copenhagen, says; “A Norwegian paper is relating a tale of an almost miraculous preservation. The Captain of the schooner Amazon, of Stavanger, recently arrived at Bergen with a cargo of salt, reports that in passing the British Channel he had the opportunity of saving a British lad of fifteen under very peculiar circumstances. The Amazon was about twelve geographical miles from the British shore when the Captain thought he observed through his telescope something floating on the water. He altered his course so as to get nearer, and soon discovered that it was a small boat, in which a lad was lying fast asleep. The shouting from the schooner did not awaken him, but when a small log was thrown over into the boat he awoke with a sudden start; an end of a line was thrown to him, and he was ust able to fasten it when he swooned, and had to be carried on board the vessel. In the boat nothing was found but a pair of oars and a Bible. The lad, when brought back to life and strength by the tender care shown to hTm, gave the following account of his fate: He was sitting on the shore, reading his Bible, when some of his companions came down to him and teased him with the manner in which he spent his leisure time. To escape from their banter he got into a boat, and kept on reading, when suddenly he discovered, to his great dismay, that his persecuWri had cut the line and left bis frail boat to the power of the quick-running ebb. He tried to use the oars, but struggled in vain against wind and water, and, as a dense fog set in, he soon lost sight of land. After several hours of alternate struggle find powerless despair he fell asleep, and sleep remained in fact his only comfort against hunger, cold, and the deep pangs of his isolation during the three days and two nights which he had spent in his frail boat when he was at last seen and saved. Unhappily, neither the name of the lad nor of the place where his parents live is given, but that will, I suppose, not be difficult to get at when the fact obtains your wide publicity. The name of the Captain of the Amazon is Thomson.”