O Hear Us When We Cry to Thee

Abstract

The most ancient and fundamental seafaring custom is the duty to provide assistance to those in distress. This chapter collates eyewitness accounts, gathered from diaries and personal interviews, of seafarers who have provided such assistance in the waters between Lampedusa and North Africa. The accounts provide a unique perspective on a tragic episode and illustrate that “the impulsive desire to save human life in peril is one of the most beneficial instincts of humanity, and is nowhere more salutary in its results than in bringing help to those who, exposed to the destruction from the fury of the winds and waves, would perish if left without assistance” (Cockburn 1880).

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea! (Whiting 1861)