The Phantom Ship 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 rhyme.

A ship sailed from New Haven,
         And the keen and frosty airs,
That filled her sails at parting,
         Were heavy with good men's prayers.

"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.