Nothing more challenging than perseverance in the face of hardship. It’s easy to give up and to say, “I’ve had enough!” To remind us that perseverance often has its rewards, older generations encourage younger ones not to yield to obstacles. There appears in every older generation some sense that perseverance is a not only a virtue, but also the most favorable approach to success.
To make their point about perseverance, our elders tell us of extreme instances of survival. One of those tales that serves as a model is the story of the shipwrecks of the Runnymede and the Briton on the Andaman Islands during a tropical cyclone (hurricane) in 1844. The two ships were sailing in the Bay of Bengal when the storm arose and drove them into the mangroves of the Andamans with their hundreds of soldiers and passengers, including women and children.
Storms at sea are dangerous phenomena as we all know. Ships, regardless of their size, are akin to bathtub toys as they skim across waters hundreds to thousands of feet deep. And there is always the potential to run into the sides of the tub, in the case of the Runnymede and the Briton, the mangroves. The tale of the two shipwrecks, however, is not without stories of those who chose not to persevere, stories of foolish individuals who thought to challenge violent winds and waves and impatiently give up on a sound course of survival. One soldier, for example, while the captain of the wrecked Briton tried to organize crew and passengers, disobeyed orders and impatiently tried to swim to safety. The people on the ship could only watch him drown as he fought strong currents that prevented his reaching the shore.
But the tale is mostly one of survival by perseverance. All storms eventually pass, and the crews of both ships remained largely organized, enabling them to establish a camp on land until their rescue. About two months after the wrecks, rescuers arrived to find about 630 relatively healthy survivors and the loss of only three men, one woman, and two children.
Now, the survivors did have some advantages beside their will to survive and their organization for the common good. They had supplies from the ships, which had wrecked about a half mile from each other. They also had soldiers whose weapons prevented the local cannibals from attacking the crew and passengers. But having those supplies, weapons, and organization shouldn’t diminish the lesson of perseverance through hardships. Life in the Andamans was apparently so difficult that a previous attempt to colonize them had been abandoned. The rescuers were surprised to see survivors who had not succumbed to disease or attack. A year after the rescue and at the request of the Runnymede’s owners, Joseph Darvall wrote the story of survival, deriving this lesson:
“We may… learn one important lesson from the perseverance of the crew of the Runnymede. That is, never to abandon any good undertaking on account of difficulties. Some unlooked-for circumstance may arise to crown our endeavours with success. The crew of the Runnymede had lost every thing but hope, when deliverance came to them unexpectedly.”*
We are in many ways consistent from generation to generation, the older generation wishing the younger one success and prescribing a key method: The simple “never give up” instruction that is both hard to learn and difficult to practice.
Somehow each generation has those who learn the lesson by enduring natural and human disasters and personal setbacks. Those survivors tell the tales of perseverance, but it seems that the young always have to learn personally the practical value of the virtue of perseverance.
*Darvall, Joseph, Esq., The Wreck on the Andamans: Being a Narrative of the Very Remarkable Preservation, and Ultimate Deliverance, of the Soldiers and Seamen, who Formed the Ships’ Companies of the Runnymede and Briton Troop-ships, Both Wrecked on the Morning of the 12th of November, 1844, upon One of the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal. London: Pelham Richardson, 23, Cornhill, 1845. pp. 72, 73.
To make their point about perseverance, our elders tell us of extreme instances of survival. One of those tales that serves as a model is the story of the shipwrecks of the Runnymede and the Briton on the Andaman Islands during a tropical cyclone (hurricane) in 1844. The two ships were sailing in the Bay of Bengal when the storm arose and drove them into the mangroves of the Andamans with their hundreds of soldiers and passengers, including women and children.
Storms at sea are dangerous phenomena as we all know. Ships, regardless of their size, are akin to bathtub toys as they skim across waters hundreds to thousands of feet deep. And there is always the potential to run into the sides of the tub, in the case of the Runnymede and the Briton, the mangroves. The tale of the two shipwrecks, however, is not without stories of those who chose not to persevere, stories of foolish individuals who thought to challenge violent winds and waves and impatiently give up on a sound course of survival. One soldier, for example, while the captain of the wrecked Briton tried to organize crew and passengers, disobeyed orders and impatiently tried to swim to safety. The people on the ship could only watch him drown as he fought strong currents that prevented his reaching the shore.
But the tale is mostly one of survival by perseverance. All storms eventually pass, and the crews of both ships remained largely organized, enabling them to establish a camp on land until their rescue. About two months after the wrecks, rescuers arrived to find about 630 relatively healthy survivors and the loss of only three men, one woman, and two children.
Now, the survivors did have some advantages beside their will to survive and their organization for the common good. They had supplies from the ships, which had wrecked about a half mile from each other. They also had soldiers whose weapons prevented the local cannibals from attacking the crew and passengers. But having those supplies, weapons, and organization shouldn’t diminish the lesson of perseverance through hardships. Life in the Andamans was apparently so difficult that a previous attempt to colonize them had been abandoned. The rescuers were surprised to see survivors who had not succumbed to disease or attack. A year after the rescue and at the request of the Runnymede’s owners, Joseph Darvall wrote the story of survival, deriving this lesson:
“We may… learn one important lesson from the perseverance of the crew of the Runnymede. That is, never to abandon any good undertaking on account of difficulties. Some unlooked-for circumstance may arise to crown our endeavours with success. The crew of the Runnymede had lost every thing but hope, when deliverance came to them unexpectedly.”*
We are in many ways consistent from generation to generation, the older generation wishing the younger one success and prescribing a key method: The simple “never give up” instruction that is both hard to learn and difficult to practice.
Somehow each generation has those who learn the lesson by enduring natural and human disasters and personal setbacks. Those survivors tell the tales of perseverance, but it seems that the young always have to learn personally the practical value of the virtue of perseverance.
*Darvall, Joseph, Esq., The Wreck on the Andamans: Being a Narrative of the Very Remarkable Preservation, and Ultimate Deliverance, of the Soldiers and Seamen, who Formed the Ships’ Companies of the Runnymede and Briton Troop-ships, Both Wrecked on the Morning of the 12th of November, 1844, upon One of the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal. London: Pelham Richardson, 23, Cornhill, 1845. pp. 72, 73.
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