A Story of Courge and Faith
Recently there has been an email about "Old Eddie" going about the web which recounts how Captain Rickenbacker, even as an old man, regularly fed sea gulls with shrimp and thanked them for the part they played in his and his men's rescue from sea.
Some wondered about its truthfulness, but I actually read about the ordeal of Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and his crew-mates and their eventual salvation through a sea gull years ago in the library's edition of "We Thought We Heard the Angels Sing." I talked about it often in class but until Amazon came along I always got it mixed up with another WWII text ba "God is My Co-Pilot" ).
Although I was a bit fuzzy about this book's title, the story had a profound emotional affect upon me. Among other things I recall the narrator quoting Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" to help describe their intense physical suffering: "Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink/ water water everywhere and not a drop to drink." It would be years later that Coleridge and his poem would become one of my favorite works and which always is covered in my Introduction to Literature class at MVNU.
I also recall vividly how Capt. Rickenbacker and his crew got it into their heads how good a strawberry milkshake would be so that they could hardly bear to fire off their flares because the red light would bring it all crashing in on them. After being rescued, it was one of the first things they asked for but the ship's cook had heard about their wish and so filled it with flavor that they could hardly bear to drink it all.
Of course the whole narrative is also cradled in deep religious faith, which may explain why it is sadly out of print. It is a powerful read and yet so clear that even young readers will find it easily accessible.
