New-York tribune., 1908-06-21
THE HISTORIC THAMES.
Yale and Haruard Ro1cers Train
Where Patriots BIed.

| Gales Ferry Conn., June 20-When the Yale
and Harvard oarsmen went into camp on the
| banks of the Thames the other day to train for
| their annual regatta June % they entered a
! land teeming with memories of deeds which
| shine on the pages Of American history. The
| native New Londoner will remind you the mo-
ment you step from the train and start up
stream for the quarters of the crews that the
| "whuh, whuh' of the crew coxswains is heard
over ripples Of the same river which carried
Benedict Arnold's troops to massacre his for
mer fellow countrymen in 1871. and whose
waves of 1912 Decatur fed to escape British
fleet.
Gales Ferry the quaint settlement which holds
the college crew colony three weeks of every
year, has history which live chapter Of
the Revolutionary struggle. indeed of both the
wars with Great Britain The soil was Redeemed
by the blood of the brave Ledyard who defended
the fort at the mouth of the Thames in the Rev
olutionary struggle and whose sword when prof
fered to his English captor upon surrender, was
plunged into his heart by a sneering Tory officer
His memory is recalled by the ferryboat Colonel
Ledyard, which plies between New London and
Groton, the town across the river
Passing New London Harbor and steaning
upstream the guest of the college crews sees re-
mains of the old shpyards where ocean vessels
fitted out for the West Indies and later
for the whaling trade Reaching Gales Ferry,
the training home of the oarsmen. you step
ashore at the wharf on which the bodies
of scores Of American patriots were laid after
the massacre in New London by Arnold. The
house which sheltered the bodies still stands on
the Gales Ferry wharf. Arnold a native
of Norwich, the next town UP the Thames On
the floor of this house the bodies remained until
identified and taken to their homes by relatives.
The little graveyard back of the Gales Ferry
church. past which the Yale oarsmen walk daily
for their after dinner stroll publishes in marble
words the thoughts and feelings OF the bereft
and stricken families whose heads had been
slain by Traitor Arnold's Numbering Troops"
as the inscriptions relate
From the towering mountain which shelters
the Gales Ferry settlement from the east hun
dreds of wives and children OF the New London
garrison gathered and heard sounds of the fight
their husbands fathers were making with the
British troops. and later saw the flames arise
which told of the defeat of the patriots and the
burning of of the largest towns on the
shores of Long Island Sound
On the side of this laurel crowned hill where |
the natives gather to witness the Yale Harvard |
boat races. the soldiers and sailors of Decatur's
fleet chafed with inactivity during most Of the !
two years of the War of 1912 Pursued 10 New |
London harbor by powerful British fleet on |
December 4. 1912. Decatur. dashing young Of |
fcer. brought there the frgate United States. |
the sloop Hornet and the British ship Macedo |
nian. which he had captured several weeks be |
fore and converted to the OF the American /
navy. Tightening the ships after they had passed |
the small New London fort. Commodore Decatur |
able to take them over the bar AT Gales |
Ferry. directly opposite the present Yale crew |
quarters
Decatur had angered the British by the capt |