William Barney Allen

“ Great Mill Rock, lying midway in Hell Gate, almost opposite the island-reef that has just been doomed to destruction, is supposed to have been the Rock on which the Corsair’s daughter was thrown when her father’s ship went down. The writer of these pages once knew a lady who, in her youth, lived with her parents on this same island, her father at that time being in the employ of the Government. This lady always seemed delighted when telling any one how she had often carried convicts, who had escaped from the prisons on Blackwell’s Island, in her skiff to the main-land. ”

“ As regards the obstructions in Hell Gate, we have gathered a few facts which may interest the reader. Though the sources are various, their authenticity may be relied on. The East River, of which Hell Gate forms a part, receives the tide at its two extremities; at the eastern extremity, the Sound tide; at the western, the Sandy Hook tide. The times as well as the heights of these tides are different. To make it still more difficult for the mariner, there are three channels existing at this historic place; that is, between the north point of Blackwell’s Island and Negro Point on Ward’s Island. ”

“ Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore!’”
* * * *
“‘Be that word our sign of parting,
Bird or fiend,’ I shrieked upstarting:
‘Get thee back into the tempest,
And the night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token
Of that lie thy soul hath spoken—
Leave my loneliness unbroken,
Quit the bust above my door;
Take thy beak from out my heart,
And take thy form from off my door’—
Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore!’”
Sailors, it is well known, are very superstitious in regard to birds alighting on their vessels. ”

“ The mariner now, by skillful piloting, can avoid its dangers and bring his ship safely from the jaws of this modern Charybdis. Not so in days remote,—its numerous rocks, islands, shelves and whirlpools rendering it terrible to the most skillful pilot at certain times of tide. This long-desired change has been brought about by the Government, which has expended millions of dollars in making this narrow strait leading to the Sound less dangerous to the navigator. ”

“ The average, in years lately passed, has been nearly one vessel a week. Though many of the obstructions were cleared out by the great explosion, planned and executed by Gen. John Newton, U.S.A.,{30} some ten years ago, yet the dangerous character of the strait remained. At last, the Government decided to tunnel underneath the middle reef (Flood Rock) —and at one tremendous explosion blow everything skyward. For nearly a decade men worked night and day to accomplish that end. The quantity of dynamite and powder used in charging the mine is said to have been 275,000 pounds. ”

“ Certain it is, that to the horrific accounts of Dutch navigators may be traced some of the various traditions handed down of this marvellous Strait. It is also true that these ancient mariners gave this pass the name of Helle-gat, or as it has been interpreted, Hell Gate.
For nearly half a century men have been blasting away at the jagged reefs which jut out into the narrow channels which connect Long Island Sound with the Bay of New York. For centuries ships have struck on these same rocks. ”

“ It was obvious, therefore, that the reef at Hallet’s Point and the middle{29} reef constituted the chief obstacles to the safe passage of ships and other craft.
Besides these great barriers, many smaller rocks contributed to increase the dangers awaiting the hapless mariner who boldly sought the waters of the Sound at unpropitious times of tide and weather. More dangerous because hidden, we give the names of a few of these formidable obstructions: Pot Rock, situated in mid channel between Ward’s Island and the Astoria shore, was a pyramidal rock, the depth over it being about eighteen feet. ”

“ The late explosion, it is asserted by those familiar with the subject, was the greatest ever known in the world. Now that the nine or ten acres of rock and island are blown up, dredging machines{32} will clear the channel, and dump the stone into almost bottomless holes in the neighborhood. The mixing of such an immense quantity of powder so near the city was done on Little Mill Rock Island, under the careful supervision of Lieutenant Derby. The compound was mixed in a lead-lined tank by men who used wooden hoes. ”

“ The eastern channel is six hundred feet wide, and lies between the Astoria shore and the middle reef, parts of which were formerly known as the Indian Flood Rock, Chickens, and Negro Head; then we have the middle channel, between the middle reef and the reef containing Great and Little Mill Rocks, and finally the main ship channel, between the last reef and the New York shore. ”

“ Formerly, vessels bound eastward on the flood, taking the eastern channel, in the endeavor to get around the reef at Hallet’s Point, ran the risk of being carried upon the Frying Pan, near Ward’s Island, while vessels bound westward on the ebb, were thrown so much off by the reef at Hallet’s Point as to be endangered by the set of the tide directly upon the middle reef. ”

“ That usually reliable, though sometimes facetious historian, Diedrich Knickerbocker, informs us that Dutch traders, bartering for furs among the Indians, two or three centuries ago, were wont to tell them that a Dutchman’s foot invariably weighed a pound, thus taking in the red man’s peltry—and the Indian into the bargain! ”

“ The previous explosion at Hell Gate, directed by the same engineer, was effected with 50,000 pounds of rack-a-rock. During the charging of the mine at that time the workmen dropped three cartridges. We have heard of but one having been dropped at Flood Rock. Of course the greatest precaution was exercised to prevent a catastrophe. Twenty picked miners had charge of placing the cartridges in position. An elevator ran up and down the shaft bringing explosives to the men below. The cartridges were hoisted on cars and trundled away by mule power to the different corridors. ”

“ These birds seem to delight in storm and tempest, now sweeping down into the trough of the sea, and now soaring high up among the clouds, and wheeling athwart them, as if enjoying a frolic. They are said to haunt the whole Atlantic seaboard. Their habit of paddling along the surface of the water obtained for them the name of petrel, from the Apostle Peter, who walked upon the water. It is probably to the birds of{27} this species—the fearless riders of the tempest—that Brainard refers in his song of “The Sea-Bird”:—
“On the deep is the mariner’s danger,
On the deep is the mariner’s death ”