On the night of December 9, 1902 on Mount Desert Rock off the coast of Maine, a young assistant lighthouse attendant awakened the lighthouse keeper to tell him he thought he heard steamboat whistle nearby. The two men went out into the bitter cold and saw on the tip of a rock ledge, what appeared to be a wrecked boat, but the tide was too high at that time for them to reach the stranded vessel.
As the tide receded, they took a rope and fought their way through the icy wind until they saw tugboat with several men tend to the rock. Several attempts were made before they got the rope out to the boat. As the sea hammered at the tug, the two lighthouse keepers begin to haul crewman to land one by one. In spite of the frigid temperature, they pulled 18 meant to safety. Had the assistant keeper not heard the tugboat whistle in the night, some of the crewmen might have perished, for shortly after the last man was rescued the vessel sank.
As the survivors talked about afterwards in the lighthouse quarters, where the wife of the keeper had prepared coffee and food, they marveled that their distress whistle could even have been heard over the howling wind and pounding waves. One of the seamen made the remark: “That whistle was the voice of God, and thankfully someone heard it.”
Ask, Call and Listen.
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