And there is the poignant allure of "Ophelia, " sinking in her waterlogged gown amid meticulously rendered verdure.

WSJ: Victorian Avant-Garde | Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design | National Gallery of Art | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer

When Elaine Rothenhaus brought her yellow Labrador Bella to a swimming lesson, the puppy took to the water fearlessly, but her rear side kept sinking.

WSJ: See Spot Swim: Remedial Lessons Put Pooches in the Pool

"I closed my eyes and prayed and waited to die, " she wrote in "The Sinking, " an account of her survival.

CNN: Miraculous survivors: Why they live while others die

Her mother, Harriet Nicholson, 60 years old, and her partner, Helen Tamaki, 43, were pulled from the sinking, upside-down helicopter but later died from complications of near drowning.

WSJ: Pilot Blamed in 2011 Crash of Helicopter

Dolores Kelly of the SDLP said she hoped that members would join her in extending condolences to the families of the fishermen lost in the sinking of a trawler off the west coast of Cork the previous weekend.

BBC: December Fisheries Council Meeting

But instead of sinking into despair, Serlin started looking for a way to feed her two young children and keep a roof over their heads.

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