*
‘Twas
on the fair Connecticut
One early summer morn;
And
scudding clouds of fog swept past
Pursued by coming dawn.
The
staunch old steamer Granite State
Moved slowly up the tide;
And
anxious eyes searched carefully
The hills on either side.
And
skillfully they guided her
Around each curve and bend.
To
run ashore and sink that morn,
Was not to be her end.
Ah,
no; a fate awaited her
Which seamen, landsmen dread.
“The
ship’s afire! A house afire!”
Are cries too often spread.
East
Haddam dock was slowly reached,
The fog rose thin and higher;
And
then a watchful officer
Discovered her on fire.
And
mid the trumpet shouts of me,
And hiss of lively steam,
And
rattling o the clanking pumps
She swung across the stream.
“The
passengers! The sleeping ones!
Must first be got ashore.”
And
officers and willing crew,
Amid that awful roar
Of
seething flames and frantic shouts
Of frantic human souls,
Did
all within their given power
To bear them to the shoals.
And
yet, as if it needs must be,
As if by heaven planned,
Three
of that number were destined
To never reach the land.
And
then as if some magic hand
Swept down the hills between,
The
fog was lifted and the sun
Shone brightly o’er the scene.
A
scene appalling tho’ ‘twas grand,
With rolling smoke and steam;
A
leaping, dancing line of flame
Adrift upon the stream.
The
officers were last to leave,
They safely reached the bank;
And
she, the ill-starred steamer struck
Lord’s Island, then she sank.
Feb.
1, 1892
Pub.
in Conn. Valley Ad.
(*Not
sure if the same ship = more likely the State of New York, as the Granite State
was burned to the water line.)
see:
New York Times on
May 18, 1883:
THE GRANITE STATE BURNED TO THE WATER’S EDGE.
PASSENGERS AND CREW FLEEING FOR
THEIR LIVES—DEATH BY FIRE AND DROWNING—GALLANT RESCUES AND NARROW ESCAPES—TWO
LIVES CERTAINLY LOST.
HARTFORD, May 18.—-The steamer
Granite State was burned at Goodspeed Landing this morning. The steamer went up
to the dock apparently all right at 4:30 o’clock in broad daylight. The
Dock-master took the head and midship hawsers and fastened them to piles as
usual and noticed nothing wrong. Even the clerk of the boat at that moment had
discovered nothing, but three minutes later the boat was full of smoke and soon
the flames were under way. A fireman first discovered the fire at the head of
the boiler and tried to put it out by bringing a hose to bear upon it, but
there was too much heat and flame for him to remain and he ran for his life.
The clerk, Mr. Silloway, as soon as he saw the danger, rushed to the state-room
hall and aroused the passengers, who speedily sought the lower deck. The boat
meanwhile had not reached the pier, but was a few feet away, with both lines
still fast.
The engineer had been compelled
to flee, and the bell-cords connecting with the pilot-house were burned. There
was no control of the machinety[sic], and a stiff northerly wind was blowing
and the tide was strong ebb. The steamer was too far away from the wharf to
make the gang-planks of service, and 20 men on board seized the midship hawser
and by superhuman efforts pulled the boat near enough to get the plank out, but
in doing this the forward hawser broke and the vessel swung off. There was
time, however, for a major part of those on board to go ashore, but some were
in, the bow of the boat and could not get below. These jumped into the river,
and from 15 to 20 men and women were struggling in the waves. Small boats were
swamped. Then a ferry-boat was brought up and all then in the water were
saved….
Clifford L. Main, a young man living in New-Haven, was married in that city Wednesday
evening, and went to New-York that night by boat on his wedding trip. He took
the Granite State last night to come to Hartford to visit his brothers. He and
his wife succeeded in partially dressing and went into the hall from their
state-room, encountering a good deal of smoke, but they got to the forward part
of the vessel and there watched the chances of escape. Mr. Main could not swim,
but as the boat had swung off he found he must go into the water. He grasped
his wife firmly around the waist, jumped into the stream, and succeeded in
catching hold of a hawser, but it broke and they both sank. Three times they
went below the surface together. The last time Mr. Main lost the hold on his
wife, as he was nearly exhausted. He found himself clinging to one of the wheel
paddles without knowing how he came there. The body of his wife was recovered
this afternoon.
(Although
this comes from a site re: the same ship, there were numerous ships with that
name.)
The shape in
the water is the remains of the Granite State Steamer which burned at East
Haddam in May of 1883 and was towed to this spot in Old Saybrook, CT.
