| In the stormy nights of
the winter, mainly, in dangerous places, great foreign boats were
shipwrecked, whose captains did not know, often, our coasts,
perhaps by defect of hydrographic charts or in other cases, by
the violence of the weathers in places little sheltered.
The fleet of Lussich with its dangerous crew went
and made feats in the heat of sea, as the slogan the same Lussich
in its interesting book "famous Shipwrecks". From Rio de Janeiro
to the Strait of Magellan, the Gray Fleet of Lussich, as were
known popularly, gain fame, and decorations of England, France,
Spain and Italy, receiving important decorations.
In opportunity to give to Lussich a gold medal,
in recognition of services, the English council said "... Lussich
directed personally, during three nights of robust weathers the
rescue of those shipwrecked poor men... exposing his life, and
refusing to receive any compensation... It is to notice that the
Government which I have the honor to represent in this act, has
engraced very few people with this medal, being considered in
England of extreme value, and I believe, is the unique one that
has occurred in Sud America... "
 The rescue activities
began in 1884, when the vaporcito Plata saved passengers and crew
of the english transatlantic Hermes. And many followed it: the
English boats Mabel and Georgina, the Amoor steam, the Brazilian
battleship Solimoes, the Argentinean torpedo Rosales , the
Brazilian package Pelotas, the English lugger Kaffir Chief,
packages Muriel and Zarate, the French San Martin, etc.
They are all ships helped in those years in the
Rio de la Plata, or in the Cabo Polonio, the Island of Wolves or
the English Bank. It would be necessary to add the French
transatlantic Espagne saved in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, the
insolvent attempt of the Corocoro in the Strait of Magellan, the
rescue of the Hazel Branch in Santa Catarina, the Hero, the
Corunna, the Weybridge, etc. just in front of the Argentine
coasts and so many boats more.
The Poet
Romantic, enthusiastic spirit, Mr. Lussich also
sang to the Majesty of the sea, to the beauty of our earth, and
to the radiating power of the sun. In 1870, when he counted 22
years of age hardly, he got up himself to the revolution of
Timoteo Aparicio. The lived experience was gathered in the
gauchesco poem "the Three Eastern Gauchos", seeing the light in
Buenos Aires in June of 1872.
The work was known by Hernandez that, six
months later, published "Martín Fierro", poem summit of the
gauchesca poetry. This take to Borges to say. "... I think it is
unquestionable the right, of the previous dialogues of Lussich,
to be considered a rough draft of the definitive book of Jose
Hernandez ...". In 1873 Lussich wrote another poem, "the Matrero
Luciano Santos", that also had great repercussion in our country.
Acquisition of Punta Ballena
More than once, during the pleasing walks
around his valuable possession whose direction trusted to me
years ago, we listened from the lips of Mr. Lussich the story of
how he acquired this piece of land that populated with trees in
abundant and select form. Helped by his privileged memory began
telling that in 1896, he had promised to a group of journalists
that when with the fleet that he had made some important rescue,
he would take them to take a walk to Punta del Este.
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