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Near the shore of Lake Michigan on the Northwestern University campus you'll find an unobtrusive bronze plaque memorializing an incredible act of heroism honoring one of the university's divinity students from another epoch. In the fading tintype of time Edward Spencer's bravery on a late summer night in 1860 have all but faded, excepting those interested in Great Lakes maritime history.
Over the centuries since someone began keeping track the Great Lakes have swallowed over 2,000 vessels. Flying over them can't possibly define Melville's literary footnote; "these inland seas have drowned many a midnight ship and all her shrieking crew." It was once an amusement for Chicago residents to board an excursion steamer on hot summer nights, cruising to music off the Chicago skyline. One such night in 1860 families boarded The Lady Elgin to escape the heat. Just a mile off shore a sudden squall shouldered its way down the Lake and in 6 foot waves, The Lady Elgin collided with a schooner, holing her hull, opening the ship to tons of water. Recognizing his passengers and crew were in mortal danger Captain Jack Wilson threw himself into the 60 degree water, saving as many swimmers as possible. Life jackets and rafts were flung through the dark into the building Lake Michigan seas. Last seen, Captain Wilson was lifting a child onto a raft.
On shore horrified spectators gathered on the beach to watch the tragedy unfold. Among them Northwestern student Edward Spencer at first transfixed, began swimming out into the churning storm to rescue anyone he could grasp. With no regard for his life Spencer's dauntless swimming rescued one, then another, then two children alone on a raft. Fifteen times Spencer plunged into Lake Michigan, each time saving whomever he could reach in the cold, building waves off Chicago.
When Spencer collapsed from exhaustion and exposure spectators built a fire on the sand, dragging Spencer to warmth and shelter. Chilled stiff and weak he huddled around the fire until he saw a man drifting to shore clutching something. The sight inspired one last effort as Spencer thrashed back into the foaming surf for the sixteenth time. He saved a husband and wife.
Bruised, bloodied and delirious, over and over he asked bystanders, "Did I do my best...did I do my best?" Edward Spencer saved 18 lives from the killing seas that night; The Lady Elgin recorded as one of the Great Lakes' worst tragedies.
Years ago when considering graduate school at Northwestern I happened upon the monument in Spencer's honor. Ironically Spencer who lived to be 81 never became a minister but his acts of valor inspired many sermons.
Though it was a galaxy away from current times we should expect that in most of us the long simmering sinew of unselfish bravery in the face of harm rises to consciousness and we ask ourselves, "Did I do my best?"
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