Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-06-10

fessor, upon the tradesmen and those
engaged in commere season of adver-
sity in the year 1916 such as they had not
known even in the earliest days of the
settlement of the New Haven colony.
The vessels lay idle in the harbor, trade
with the other colonies languished, and
and as the New Haven colonists were
familiar with commerce rather than
agriculture, they were embarrassed
even for the necessaries of life. But for
the energy and determination of some
of the men of character, the colony
must have found its existence imper-
lied, for many had determined to
depart, some even making arrange
ments to emigrate to Ireland. A less
courageous and tenacious race must
have succumbed. 1t was determined
as last resort to build ship large
enough to cross the ocean, freight her,
and send her to England in the hope
that the disheartening losses would be
retrieved by the development of COM
merce with the mother country. Over
coming great obstacles they built ship
Il Rhode Island colony.
The frost had closed the smaller
streams, and the ground was whitened
with snow when the ship entered New
Haven harbor. There was great re-
joicing at the sight of her, and her size,
being fully $50 tons measurement, was
cause for wonder, for such a monster
had never been seen before in that har-
Dor. With her sails all set and her
colors abroad, she came up to her
anchoring place with such grace and
speed as greatly delighted the people
who had assembled at the water edge
to greet her. Courage was revived BY
the sight of her, and the people said,
Now we shall again have plenty and
add to our possessions, if God be wiling
1.-The master of the ship, Mr. Lamber-
ton, was found to be somewhat gloomy,
and DR.. Prentice records that Lamber-
ton told him in confidence that, though
the ship was of fine model and fast
sailer, yet she was so wilty-meaning
thereby of such disposition to roll in
rough water-that he feared she would
prove the grave of all who sailed in her.
However, he breathed his suspicious to
no one else. The ship was laden and
ready for departure early January. 1647.
''The cold that prevailed for five days
and nights before the time fixed for
clearing for London was such as the
people had never before known. 1t
must have remained many degrees be-
low zero, for the salt water was frozen
far down the harbor, and the ship was
rivited by the ice as firmly as though
by many anchors. There was no lazy
bones among the people, and with
prodigious industry the men cut canal
throu gh the ice forty feet wide and five
miles long to the never-freezing waters
of the Sound. The vessel was frozen
in with her bow pointing toward the
shore, and itwcs necessary to pcopel
her to clear water stern foremost.
This was an unlucky omen Capt.
Lamberton avowed that the sea and the
conflicting powers that struggled for
its mastery wore controlled by whims
and freaks, which would be sure to be
excited by such an insult as that of
ship entering the water stern first. An
a ship that sailed stern first always
returned stern first, meaning by that
she never came back to the harbor from
which she thus departed.
"You will OBSERVE said the Professor
putting down the manuscript for
moment, ''that in these gloomy fore
bodings are to be detected traces of t..
neurological conception of the mystic:
of the sea, with which all sailors, ev
to the present time, are more or less
tincturcd. l am especially impressed
with the manner in which these colon
lists acted. Believing in predcstination
in spiritual matters, their lives in
worldly affairs conformed more or less
thereto. So, in splits of these omens,
there was no thou ght of delay. They
had fixed the time for sailing, and they
meant to sail. So godly a man as the
Rev. Mr.. Davenport expressed this feel
ing in his prayer, as reported by this
writer. Mr.. Davenport, as the ship
began slowly to move, used these words:
Lord, if it be Thy pleasure to bury these
our friends in the bottom of the sea,
they are Thine. Save them!'
"Men less completely under the dom
ination of their religious belief would
never have gone to sea without exor-
cising in some way the evil influences
which these omens seemed to indicate
would prevail. There had gathered OF
the ice all the people of the colony e.
cept the sick and feeble, perhaps 800 o.
1000 souls On the departing vessel
were some of their friends and kin.
The farewells were said with the ex-
pressions neither of grief nor of Joy.
Restraint, the subjugation, even the
quenching of all emotions, was the rule
of life with these people, and | gather
from one or two expressions in this
account that never was there more
formal, less demonstrative leave taking.
When the vessel reached deep water,
and just as one of the great sails was
beginning to belly with the wind, the
people with one accord fell on their
knees on the ice and prayed: The ship
was five miles away. The air was clar-
flied by the cold, and the vessel could be
distinctly seen, and as the people prayed
with open eyes that were fixed upon
the distant and rcceding ship, she sud
denly disappeared, vanished as quickly
as though her bottom had fallen out
and she had sunk on the instant. yes,
says this writer, more suddenly, for
where as at one moment the eyes of all
of us were fixed upon her, at the next
as in the wink of the eye. she was not
We rose gazed tixedly into the vacant
space where we last saw her. and then
with wonder turned to each other. Yet
in another moment she was disclosed to
us as she was before, and we watched her
until she disappeared behind the neck
of land that bound the harbor to the
east. So we dispersed, wondering at
this strange manifestation, whose mean