Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A LEGEND OF HELL GATE, 1675 by GIDEON JOHN TUCKER

First Line: A SAUCY BOAT WAS THE ANNETJE BLOCK
Last Line: WHEN THE HELL GATE TIDE IS OUT.
Subject(s): DEATH; LEGENDS; NEW YORK CITY - DUTCH PERIOD; SEA VOYAGES; TRAGEDY; DEAD, THE;
A saucy boat was the @3Annetje Block@1
Periauga-built was the craft;
She carried at masthead a crowing cock,
And an Orange streamer abaft.
Her gay young skipper was Hans van Loon,
From the Wallabout shore he hailed,
And all eyes followed his bounding boat
As up the East River she sailed.

Who was there, among the Breukelen girls,
As fair as Lisbet van Pelt,
With her blooming cheeks and her yellow curls,
And her waist in a wampum belt?
With her lover, Hans, she fled from her home,
And they gained the river's side,
Where the @3Annetje Block@1 with her streamers set,
Swung on the restless tide.

With the southerly breeze that briskly blew,
Up the East River they bore,
Past Gouanes Kill and Point Bellevue,
And the rocky Manhattan shore;
But a squall swooped down on the dancing boat,
And the whirlpool raged about;
You may see the reef where they met their death,
When the Hell Gate tide is out.



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