All persons entirely fictitious. Again, not my personal taste, just exploring different categories.
Amy awoke to find that the lifeboat had found land, and initially felt elated to be alive and not out at sea, all alone in the wooden lifeboat, with no provisions.
The elation was short lived however, as the horrors of the previous night flooded back to her, followed immediately by fears of where she had landed, and her continued survival.
An explosion, followed by fire, had devastated their vessel, a fault in the steam engine or boiler she'd heard someone shout in the panic on board. The order to abandon ship was given, women and children first.
She remembered the ship going down fast, listing hard to port, with little time to gather people and put them in the life boats before the vessel was swallowed by the ocean. Her grief hit her hard, as she recalled being placed in the boat by her husband who had then lowered her and it down to the water, the look of fear, resolve, and love on his face. A look she'd never forget. It was the last she saw of him, and in her heart she knew he had gone down with the vessel.
She'd expected to rescue others from the water, those who had jumped. And though she could hear some folks crying out, she could not see them once the ship went under and no light remained on the waters surface. The black of the night was not even broken by the moons glow. She called back to them so they could try and swim toward her voice. But none arrived, and her boat began to drift away on the choppy seas.
The boat had a lifebuoy / ring, a length of rope, oars and a large canvas for shelter. Nothing else.
When she could no longer hear cries for help, she had curled up under the canvas and wept herself to an exhausted sleep, resigning herself to being lost at sea, adrift in the middle of....she didn't even know where.
They were headed to Australia, for a new life together, to start a family. She wasn't sure if they had gone down in the Pacific or Indian Ocean or somewhere else, she had no interest which way the ships course was navigated, east or west, that was a mans interest.
The year was 1901. The month August. She was 21.
Amy realised she had to pull herself together and explore the land. See if it was inhabited, had water, or food to sustain her. She dragged the lifeboat as far as she could up on to the beach. And used the rope to secure it to a large rock.
She could not see much of the coast, as the beach curled around in each direction after a few hundred yards, and was edged with rock formations as well as beach, implying she was on a small island, or maybe just a small beach on a promontory of a mainland. She could see a small hill in the near distance beyond a row of trees and forest, and decided she would head in that direction and scale the hill to give her a better view of the land. She also figured if there was water, its source would likely come from the hill and flow toward the sea.
She got lucky for a second time. Perhaps her lost husband looking down on her and aiding her she thought.
The trees and plants appeared to yield lots of fruits and berries she had never seen before, and there were birds, and animals on the island, again the likes of which she had not seen or heard of, and there would be fish in the sea - if she could catch any of them. If needs be, she was confident she could butcher and prepare them, being a skilled cook and used to doing such things with fish, foul, rabbits etc at home. The only other problem would be fire. Something else she would need to figure out, unless she was on occupied, inhabited, land.
As she reached the base of the hill, she was overjoyed to find a small lagoon fed by a small waterfall. She knelt and drank thirstily, gulping in the clear, fresh water.
She felt a little energised and refreshed, but was also beginning to realise that 1900's ladies fashion was not ideal for exploration, especially in such heat. Once she figured out exactly what she faced then that was another matter to be considered and resolved.
She reached the hilltop and looked around 360 degrees. All she could see was ocean, except for other small atolls / reefs or islands forming an archipelago, of which she occupied one.
If she had to guess, the land mass was probably no more than a mile across in each direction.
She saw no fires (or smoke), no dwellings or any other signs of habitat except for the wildlife. She concluded confidently that she was alone.
OK. So that was decision one made. Being alone meant she didn't need to wear her civilised society clothing which was stifling her in the heat, and making it so hard to move around as it was heavy, and snagged on the fauna constantly.
She wore a modest dress, with the body moulded by a corset decorated with simple ornamentation.
The corset pushed her breasts forward and the hips back, emphasising a narrow waist and large "mono-bosom."
Her body was covered from the neck to the floor with long sleeves covering the arms. The skirt was bell-shaped decorated with lace, now torn, dirty, and wet. With a petticoat beneath.
Her under garments, or knickers, had very wide legs and were decorated with frills at the knee, but were still easily accommodated under her wide petticoats and her equally full wide skirt of the dress.
She wore a thin slip on her upper body under the corset.
She removed all her garments except for her thin slip and knickers, feeling instantly cooler and more flexible mobility wise. Oddly, she still felt self conscious parading herself like this, even though the only witnesses were animal and bird.
In the days to come, she overcame many obstacles.
She found shells she could use to keep fresh water inside, and watched which fruits and berries the birds and animals ate and copied them, assuming they would be safe to eat if they ate them. She used some of the rope, the canvas and tree branches to make a shelter, and used her discarded clothing as a thin mattress on a bed of large palm leaves.
