Hell Gate and its Approaches

Thinking about Hellmouth, Hell Gate, and hubris this morning. Washington Irving wrote a vivid description of Hell Gate and so this morning, wool coat off, breakfasted, showered and pinkly dressed, I looked it up, and then my mind wandered over to reading Tales of a Traveller, which between maelstroms and idealized childhood love reminds me not only of Poe but of Lolita (Nabokov must have read him), and of you and me.

What a mess. But a fairly accurate representation of my mental state this morning.

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From the NYC Department of City Planning, City Island: A Maritime History

Starting around the 1840s, some City Island men earned their living as "Hell Gate pilots," guiding ships on their way to and from Long Island Sound through the notoriously dangerous area where the Sound meets the East River near Ward's Island. The Dutch named it Hell gatt - literally, "hell hole." This narrow, crooked channel with its submerged rocks and strong tidal currents was considered to be one of the most dangerous waterways leading to a major port... Accidents were numerous and ships were continually gashing their hulls on the jagged reefs or colliding with one another. Pilots were essential in this waterway...

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From Tales of a Traveller, Washington Irving

... the current is violently compressed between shouldering promontories, and horribly irritated and perplexed by rocks and shoals. Being at the best of times a very violent, hasty current, its takes these impediments in mighty dudgeon; boiling in whirlpools; brawling and fretting in ripples and breakers; and, in short, indulging in all kinds of wrong-headed paroxysms. At such times, woe to any unlucky vessel that ventures within its clutches. This termagant humor is said to prevail only at half tides. At low water it is as pacific as any other stream. As the tide rises, it begins to fret; at half tide it rages and roars as if bellowing for more water; but when the tide is full it relapses again into quiet, and for a time seems almost to sleep as soundly as an alderman after dinner. It may be compared to an inveterate hard drinker, who is a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skin full, but when half seas over plays the very devil.

chart: Hell Gate in 1851