STW > Animals and Their Feelings

Animals Are Heroes
Tang, a Newfoundland dog, saved 92 people from a sinking ship in a horrible storm.

Adapted from Dog Heroes by Tim Jones.
Seattle: Epicenter Press, 1995.

During a snowstorm in December 1919, a ship called the Ethie crashed into rocks off the shore of Newfoundland, Canada. Ninety-three people were trapped on the ship as the ocean pounded it into the rocks. The crew tried to throw one of the ship’s ropes to people on the beach, but they missed. Then one of the sailors took the rope and jumped into the ocean. He tried to swim to the beach with the rope, but he was carried out to sea and never seen again.

Then the ship’s captain saw Tang, a Newfoundland who lived aboard the Ethie. The captain knew Tang was their last hope. He gave the rope to Tang. With the rope in his teeth, the dog jumped into the sea and swam for land. In the huge waves and strong winds, it must have been hard for Tang to swim—the undertow tried to drag him out to sea, and the water rushed into his eyes and ears. But he swam on until he reached the shore. People on the beach ran into the water to pull Tang onto dry land. They took the rope from his mouth and tied it to something strong. The rope was used to bring the people on the sinking ship to land. All 92 people on the Ethie were saved.

History books don’t say what Tang did once he’d made it to land, but it isn’t hard to imagine the excited dog looking for his human companion, greeting every person that came from the ship. Lloyd’s of London, the famous insurance company, gave Tang a medal for bravery, which he wore for the rest of his life.

DID YOU ALSO KNOW?
• A dog and a duck once led a mother to her drowning son! (Real Animal Heroes, Paul Drew Stevens, 1989)

• A wildlife observer once saw an elephant try over and over to rescue a baby rhinoceros from where she was stuck in the mud, even though the mother rhinoceros kept charging the elephant! (When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy, 1995)

SUGGESTED READING ON ANIMALS

Beautiful Joe by Marshall Saunders, retold by Quinn Currie. Seattle: Storytellers Ink, 1990.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. New York: Scholastic Books, 1877.

The Bollo Caper by Art Buchwald. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1983.

Cat Stories by James Herriot. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. New York: Harper, 1952.

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble. New York: Bradbury Press, 1978.

Hunter and His Dog by Brian Wildsmith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

In Hawk, I’m Your Brother by Byrd Baylor. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976.

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George. New York: HarperCollins Press, 1974.

Perfect the Pig by Susan Jeschke. New York: Scholastic Books, 1980.

Pets Without Homes by Caroline Arnold. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1983.

Sandy of Laguna by Joseph Bell. Seattle: Storytellers Ink, 1992.

The Secret of NIMH by Robert O’Brien. New York: Scholastic Books, 1982.

That Quail, Robert by Margaret Stanger. New York: HarperPerennial, 1966.

William’s Story by Debra Duel. Seattle: Storytellers Ink, 1992.