Courage and Honesty

I look forward to reading the newspaper the day after Pearl Harbor day (December 7). Our San Diego Union Tribune always has interviews with local Pearl Harbor survivors.

Hearing about his harrowing tale of escape from the sinking USS Oklahoma makes me sad for the lives that were lost, and proud of American will to survive and to thrive.

He may be 101-years-old, but George is still quick with a smart response. He is still feisty!

“People always say to me, “Thank you for your service.” I tell them I did it willingly, but I can’t say it was enjoyable, and don’t ask me to do it again.”

— George Coburn, Pearl Harbor Survivor, age 101

Thank you for your service, George Coburn!

A Story of Isolation, Shortages, Learning, and Hope

Isolation

It’s 1864.  During freezing rain and howling winds, a ship wrecks on Auckland Island, 290 miles south of New Zealand. All 5 men on the Grafton survive the storm, and immediately begin working together to build a hut, find food and water, and set up a signal for passing ships. The days and weeks pass, bringing cold and hunger.  It will be 18 lonely months before the 5 men make it safely back to New Zealand.

Isolation

It’s 2020. A year of isolation. Social distancing isolates our bodies, and masks isolate our smiles. We stay home from church, from the gym, from work, from school, and from gatherings with friends. When is the last time you went to a birthday party?

Like the shipwrecked men, we simply do not know how much longer until we are free from our isolation.

Shortages

It’s 1864.  During freezing rain and howling winds, another ship wrecks on the opposite side of Auckland Island, 26 miles away from the crew of the Grafton. Six drown in the wreck of the Invercauld; 19 men get to shore.  But lack of leadership brings out the worst in the men. The survivors:

• steal food from each other

• push unlikable men out of the shelter

• abandon the sick

• split up into splintered tribes

• even eat the man who was “being a nuisance”!

The crews of the two ships handle shortages in very different ways, because the Invercauld has a captain incapable of seeing to the welfare of anyone but himself.

Within three months 16 men have died from injury or starvation or illness.  The surviving captain and first mate will not let the remaining crewman share their shelter, but still demand he prepares food for them.

One year later, when a ship lands for repairs and discovers the crew of the Invercauld, only these three men are left alive. The captain and first mate are bathed and clothed and fed, while the one surviving crewman is expected to fend for himself among the crew below decks.

The ship sails away, never knowing that the five men of the Grafton are also stranded on the island.

Shortages

It’s 2020. Toilet paper is mysteriously in short supply, and tempers are short.  Some people complain that we have lost our common sense, and others mourn the death of common courtesy. We’re telling you about the two shipwrecks on Auckland Island, and about their vast difference in leadership and concern for others. 

We must take care of those around us, even when it is difficult.  Even with the people “being a nuisance”.

Learning

It’s 1864.  The Grafton survivors realize that they must have something to occupy their minds, or they will fall into despair. The evenings drag on! They make games (chess, dominos, cards) and they make beer.

But more importantly, they assign each man an evening when he is the teacher.

• The captain teaches reading and writing.

• The businessman teaches math.

• Two crew members teach their native languages (Norwegian and Portuguese)

• The youngest tells tales from his homeland.

• Saturday evening is for games.

• Sunday is for Bible lessons. 

It is unheard of for officers and crew to mix like that.  Upper class people simply didn’t take lessons from the lower class. Yet think of the pride and confidence each man gained in their evening leading the learning!

The captain of the Grafton is a great example of a servant-leader.

Learning

It’s 2020. Have you been given the gift of time? Maybe you’ve started a new exercise program. Baked sourdough bread at home. Picked up the ukulele. Knitted a sweater or sewed a quilt. Tried puzzles or painted with Bob Ross. Taught yourself chemistry. Binge watched TV or created a Tik Tok video. Learn something new!

Trying something new keeps our minds and bodies sharp, exposes us to new people, and helps when time drags on.  Maybe you’ve even made it part of your routine to check in on other people.  Phone calls and cards and conversations over the backyard fence can be so meaningful right now.  The little things do count. 

Hope

It’s 1865. After a year without sighting a rescue ship, the Grafton men plan their escape.  They work three months building a boat for the 5 of them, which is dashed to pieces in the surf.  Setback!

Again, they have to make everything from scratch. Each nail, every board from the wrecked ship, each patch in the sails – and this time the boat only fits 3 men.  How do you choose?

This becomes one of their biggest arguments.  “If any of us are to be drowned, let us all drown together.”  Can you imagine being the two left behind?

After an emotional farewell, it only takes 5 days for the little boat with 3 men to land on a Maori island outpost. But because of storms and a little thing called fundraising, it takes 7 weeks for the rescue ship to return. And then, a storm keeps the rescue ship on the island for a week.

When the weather finally clears, they load up and everyone makes it to New Zealand. That very same day!

Hope

It’s 2020. Like the crew of the Grafton, we go through challenging times. Hopefully never that challenging! But like the crew of the Grafton, we can look to God. We can continue to worship God and pray for guidance. God will never leave us or forsake us.  God is our comfort.  God is our hope. Rioters can burn and loot our downtown; we can join in the clean-up. We can check in on friends and family. We can act justly. We can be hope and love because Jesus is hope and love.

For the complete story of the Grafton and Invercauld, get lost in Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett.

Life Achievements Often Require Compromises - Is That OK?

Amelia Earhart had many firsts.

You probably know her as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

There is more to the story.

She wasn’t the pilot.

It was 1928, one year after Charles Lindbergh flew solo from New York to Paris. Several women were striving to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Planes were expensive, and unreliable in the early days of flight, so the one with the money and the courage got the first chance.

Powerful book publisher George P. Putnam put a team together, including pilot Wilmer Stultz and mechanic Louis Gordon. Amelia’s job was to be the flight recorder, and write a book about her experience. The plane took off from Newfoundland June 17, 1928, and successfully landed in South Wales over 20 hours later.

“Stultz did all the flying - had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes.”

— Amelia Earhart

But Amelia’s big contribution was her country-wide book tour, publicized by the same George P. Putnam. Amelia’s goal was to make flying available to everyone, even women. She even became the Aviation Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine!

Her tireless campaign for women to fly, along with several other passionate women pilots, led to the formation of The Nintey-Nines, an organization of licensed women pilots.

Was Amelia Earhart’s famous flight across the Atlantic, when she was only a passenger, a compromise?

Yes.

Did this compromise diminish her achievement?

No.

There were around 200 licensed women pilots in the USA in 1928. By 1935, that number flew to over 700!

Way to go, Amelia!

Amelia went on to set many flight records on her own.

• October 1922 broke women’s altitude record

• June 1928 first woman to fly (as passenger) across Atlantic Ocean

• June 1930 broke women’s speed record

• April 1931 set women’s autogiro (like a helicopter/air baloon) altitude record

• May 1932 first woman to fly solo across Atlantic Ocean - she did it!

• August 1932 first woman to fly solo across the USA nonstop

• January 1935 first person, man or woman, to fly solo from Hawaii to California

• April 1935 first person, man or woman, to fly solo nonstop from Mexico City to New Jersey

Here is a lovely biography of Amelia by Katie Teekell.

Remember I said planes were expensive and unreliable? It took someone with money and with courage to attempt the flying records that Amelia did.

She had the courage.

How did she get the money?

She married her publisher.

George P. Putnam promoted Amelia. But he also pursued her. After his divorce in 1929, he asked her to marry him six times before she finally agreed in 1931.

But she seemed to be indebted to George, instead of in love with George. She seemed to marry him out of obligation and gratitude for the opportunities he provided for her.

How do we know? She wrote him a letter on the day of their wedding.

There are some things which should be writ before we are married -- things we have talked over before -- most of them. 

You must know again my reluctance to marry, my feeling that I shatter thereby chances in work which means most to me. I feel the move just now as foolish as anything I could do. I know there may be compensations but have no heart to look ahead. 

On our life together I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly. If we can be honest I think the difficulties which arise may best be avoided should you or I become interested deeply (or in passing) in anyone else.

Please let us not interfere with the others' work or play, nor let the world see our private joys or disagreements. In this connection I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage. 

I must exact a cruel promise and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no happiness together.

I will try to do my best in every way and give you that part of me you know and seem to want.

Was Amelia Earhart’s marriage to her publicist a compromise?

Yes.

Did this compromise diminish her achievement?

No.

Learn everything you wanted to know about early aviation in Keith O’Brien’s amazing book Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History

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