| Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917. | | | | A Legend of Hell Gate | | By Gideon J. Tucker |
| | A. D. 1675
A SAUCY boat was the Annetje Block | |
| 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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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 Annetje Block with her streamers set, | 15 |
| 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; | 20 |
| 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. | | | | |
|
|
