'The Rescuer'

Not only was she officially named the Lime Rock Lighthouse Keeper in Newport R.I., the United States Lighthouse Service sent her the Gold Lifesaving Medal and Certificate.

And, of course, there was her magnificent new dory, the Rescue. Its mahogany planks and gold-plated oarlocks gleamed in the sun. As she gazed at the beautiful boat, memories of another golden award, a $10 gold piece, came flooding back.

"Grab onto the boat! One on each side!" she remembered screaming into the bracing wind. Could they hear her? Yes! They did as she told them.

Four boys thrashed around in the wind-whipped waves. Their boat had capsized. Quickly she shoved her little rowboat into the water, rowing hard and fast.

"You other two, get behind the boat and kick hard!" Her body screamed with pain and her heart throbbed in her chest. She got them to shore. The reward for her first rescue was that gleaming $10 gold piece given to her by the boys' parents.

She laughed. Another time, there was the sheep that had smiled. It was in the water with three men. She told them to hold on to their boat but shove the sheep inside. The sheep smiled at her all the way back to safety.

But mostly there was danger. One time it was snowing so hard she could barely see the brown shapes bobbing in the ocean. But they were there, and she knew what that meant -- people were struggling in the water. She wiped her runny nose and got out of bed.

Her mother tried to stop her. "Don't go, Ida! The waves are huge! It's impossible!"

But Ida dashed out of the house without her jacket and shoes. She would never forget how the wind bit into her body. She used all her strength to row to the shapes. The wind pushed the boat up, but she could still see them. But then when she was forced down all she could see was water. Shaking and shivering, her arms and legs stinging from the wind-whipped snow, she heard frightened cries riding on the wind. There were two snow-covered men. She yelled, "Grab onto the boat! Try not to swallow water. Keep your heads up!"

Frantically, they clutched the boat while she rowed them to her house next to the lighthouse. She had saved them. The sodden and disheveled men staggered when she helped them out of the boat.

Safely inside, the rescued soldiers stood gratefully by the fireplace. Their names were Sergeant James Adams and Private John McLaughlin.

They returned two weeks later. "Miss Lewis, the soldiers think you are a miracle," Adams told her. Her heart beat a little faster when she heard that.

They presented her with $200 collected from the soldiers at Ft. Adams and a gold watch.

And now on this sunny Fourth of July, the gold of the oarlocks glittered in the sun and she was told she was going to meet the president of the United States!

She gently caressed the polished wood of her beautiful dory and thought of the small, plain rowboat she had used to battle storms, the sea and her own fear.

They told her she had rescued 18 people using that little rowboat.

"Eighteen!" Ida couldn't believe it. "I never counted. I just saved lives."

The Ida Lewis Lighthouse was named in her honor after her death in 1911. She is the only woman to have a lighthouse named for her. The Ida Lewis Yacht Club is an active club in Newport Harbor, R.I.