Actually, I once read an awe-inspiring description of an incident similar to the one in the story, by one of the individuals who actually participated. I haven't been able to locate it anywhere or I would just have quoted it directly, so I wrote my own. I did a little research, including the same website you linked us to, to try to make the fiction true to life. No, not a chapter for a novel, just a writer's exercise.

If you ever turn up that reference, uber-researcher Tom, that I refer to, I would appreciate a link to it. The eye-witness's description, in beautiful Victorian prose, is one of the most moving things I've ever read.