HEROIC DEEDS 



merely a matter of preserving a little ship. Quite 

 apart from the courage shown, it might stand on 

 record as a unique salvage deed. 



Women had responded to the national call in vast 

 numbers, particularly in relation to munition work ; 

 and in man}- parts of the country they did valuable 

 work in keeping inshore fisheries busy. It was no 

 new thing for women in certain regions to take a 

 standing share in the industry, apart from the army 

 of Scotch fisher girls and such bodies as the 

 1 flithers " women of the Flamborough and Filey 

 districts ; but it was a departure for wives and 

 daughters to go out to sea and fish. 



Deeds were performed in connection with the war 

 which were worthy of being placed side by side with 

 the achievement of Grace Darling, and such was the 

 case of a girl of twenty to which attention was called 

 in the House of Commons. This heroine was Miss 

 Ella Trout, of Hall Sands, South Devon, who 

 rescued some of the survivors of a torpedoed ship. 

 She was out in her boat, with her cousin, a boy of 

 ten, lifting her crab-pots, when she saw a cargo boat 

 coming up from the westward. At that time she 

 was just off Start Point. Just as she was watching 

 the steamer she heard a terrible explosion and the 

 ship vanished, showing that the torpedo had done 

 its deadly work swiftly. 



The girl had the sails up, but she lowered them 

 at once, as the wind was in the wrong quarter for 

 sailing to the scene of the disaster. She and the boy 

 took an oar each and pulled hard to the spot, about 



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