Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut

<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title>Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut - 1644 The Phantom Ship</title> <meta name="Description" content="The Society of Colonial Wars perpetuates the memory of events in American Colonial History and of the people in military and civil positions who assisted in the establishment, defense and preservation of the American Colonies"> <meta name="Keywords" content="Connecticut, Connecticut Colonial History, Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, Adriaen Block, Connecticut River, House of Good Hope, Hartford CT, William Holmes, Windsor CT, Wethersfield CT, John Oldham, Saybrook CT, John Winthrop Jr, Lion Gardiner, Thomas Hooker, Pequot War, John Mason, Pequot Indian history, Indian Wars in the Colonies, Colonial Militia, Quinnipiac Indians, New Haven CT, John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton, Fundamental Orders of CT, John Haynes, George Fenwick, Henry Whitfield, Guilford, New England Confederation, Phantom Ship, New London CT, Ann Dudley Winthrop, Roger Ludlow, John Dixwell, William Goffe, Edward Whalley, Union of New Haven and Connecticut Colonies, Matthew Griswold, King Philip's War, Andros, Charter Oak, French and Indian War, Fitz-John Winthrop, Colchester CT, Collegiate School, Yale, Queen Annes' War, New Haven State House, tinware manufacture, Johnathan Edwards, Great Awakening, King George's War, Roger Wolcott, Louisburg, Connecticut Gazette of New Haven, James Parker, Nathan Hale, connecticut Courant, Thomas Green, Stamp Act, Thomas Fitch, William Pitkin, New Haven Journal-Courier, Susquehanna Company, Silas Deane, Eliphatet Dyer, Roger Sherman, First Continental Congress, Lexington Alarm, Fort Ticonderoga, gun powder mill, Battle of Bunker Hill, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Declaration of Independence, Johnathan Trumbull, the Constitution State, Theological Disputes, American Colonies, Indians of Connecticut, Colonial Military, Colonial Schools, Flags and Seals of Connecticut, Colonial Towns of Connecticut"> <link href="/colonialwars.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href="/navigation.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />    <script src="js/jquery-1.2.6.min.js"></script> <script src="js/promenu4.js"></script> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> <script> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-8905428-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 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1740</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1717.htm">1717</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1711else.htm">1711-1720</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1721else.htm">1721-1730</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1731.htm">1731</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1740_s.htm">1740</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1740_s.htm">1740s</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1731else.htm">1731-1740</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#" title="Time Span 1745-1760">1745 - 1760</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1745.htm">1745</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1741else.htm">1741-1750</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1701writers.htm">1701-1750</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1755.htm">1755</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1751else.htm">1751-1760</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#" title="Time Span 1745-1760">1763 - 1770</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1731else.htm">1763</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1764.htm">1764</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1765.htm">1765</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1766.htm">1766</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1767.htm">1767</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1769.htm">1769</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1761else.htm">1761-1770</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#" title="Time Span 1774-1776">1774 - 1775</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1774.htm">1774</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1775_lex_alarm.htm">1775</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1775-links.htm">1775 - Benedict Arnold</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1771else.htm">1771-1775</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1751writers.htm">1751-1775</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#" title="Epilogue">Epilogue</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1776.htm">1776</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#" title="Appendix">Appendix</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/constit_state_links.htm">The Constitution State</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/disputes_links.htm">The Theological Disputes</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/amer_colonies_links.htm">The American Colonies</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1776_dec_independence.htm">The Declaration of Independence</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/indians_links.htm">The Indians of Connecticut</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/colonial_military_links.htm">The Colonial Military</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/colonial_schools.htm">The Colonial Schools</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/flags_seals_ct.htm">The Flags and Seals of Connecticut</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/general-society.htm" title="General Society">General Society</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/connecticut-society.htm" title="Connecticut Society">Connecticut Society</a> </li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/ancestral_search.htm" title="Ancestral Search">Ancestral Search</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/colonial_towns_links.htm" title="Colonial Towns">Colonial Towns</a></li>  <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/shop/" title="Shop"> Shop   </a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/membership.htm" title="Membership"> Membership</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.colonialwarsct.org/contact_us.php" title="Contact Us">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> </div>   <div class="placeholder"> </div>  <div id="interior-content">  <div id="interior-textbox"> <h4>1644 — THE PHANTOM SHIP</h4> As early as 1644 Theophilus Eaton, Stephen Goodyear, Thomas Gregston and perhaps other merchants at New Haven entrusted the construction of an ocean-going vessel to John Wakeman, Joshua Atwater, Jasper Crane and Richard Miles. Though ill built and very "walt-side," in due course the ship was completed. Entrusted with a cargo of wheat, peas, hides, beaver and peltry and manuscript writings of John Davenport at New Haven and Thomas Hooker at Hartford, about the middle of January, 1646, the vessel ploughed its way through three miles of ice in New Haven harbor and tackled the stormy Atlantic. On board were Thomas Gregson, Nathaniel Turner, George Lamberton, the wife of Stephen Goodyear, and Francis Austin. After many months, a mirage of the ship was said to have appeared over the harbor at New Haven, but the vessel itself neither reached its destination nor returned to its port of departure. Despite this initial setback, on October 7, 1646, a second vessel was about to be launched at New Haven; in the summer of 1648 a third vessel was under construction; and in the spring of 1661 Charles Glover laid a fifty-foot keel at Southold. <img src="images/phantom_ship.jpg" alt="Phantom Ship" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px" height="156" width="217"> Two Quinnipiac Indians along with John Davenport (dressed in a black robe) and other New Haveners, watch the "Phantom Ship" depart on its fateful journey in 1646. "Embarkation of the phantom ship" Jesse Talbot From the collection of the New Haven Colony Historical Society The Phantom Ship by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In Mather's Magnalia Christi, Of the old colonial time, May be found in prose the legend That is here set down in ryhme. A ship sailed from New Haven, And the keen and frosty airs, That filled her sails at parting, were heavy with good men's prayer. "O Lord if it be thy pleasure"-- Thus prayed the old divine-- "To bury our friends in the ocean, Take them, for they are thine!" But Master Lamberton muttered, And under his breath said he, "This ship is so crank and walty, I fear our grave she will be!" And the ships that came from England, When the winter months were gone, Brought no tidings of this vessel Nor of Master Lamberton. This put the people to praying that the Lord would let them hear What in his greater wisdom He had done with friends so dear. And at last their prayers were answered: It was in the month of June, An hour before the sunset Of a windy afternoon, When, steadily steering landward, A ship was seen below, And they knew it was Lamberton, Master, Who sailed long ago. On she came, with a cloud of canvas, Right against the wind that blew Until the eye could distinguish聽 The faces of the crew. Then fell her straining topmasts, Hanging tangled in the shrouds, And her sails were loosened and lifted, And blown away like the clouds. And the masts, with all their rigging, Fell slowly, one by one, And the hulk dilated and vanished, As sea-mist in the sun! And the people who saw this marvel Each said unto his friend, That this was the mould of their vessel, And thus her tragic end. And the pastor of the village Gave thanks to God in prayer, That, to quiet their troubled spirits, He had sent this Ship of Air. <a href="introduction_bibliography.htm#1644.biblio">1644 Bibliography</a> </div>  </div> </div>   <div id="footer">  <div id="footertop" class="clearfix"> <div id="footercopyright"> Copyright 漏 Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut. 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Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut - 1644 The Phantom Ship