Sascha Feinstein

The Saga of the Bark Zamora

Charles Lewis Hallett (1822 – 1845)
Woodside Cemetery, Yarmouth, MA

He lost his life in attempting to reach the shore
To save the lives of those onboard.

The epitaph and broken masts in high relief provide
the bones of this tale, the flesh almost forgotten.
The Zamora left New Orleans for Boston that November
with 154 bales of cotton, and six weeks later wrecks
off the coast of Plymouth Bay roiling from unforgiving
storms. The mizzenmast snapped immediately,
then the keel, sternpost, and bottom of the bark.

Locals gathered in the sleet. Though hours later
the saved captain will be almost unable to stand
from bourbon, no one contemplated fault
as the crew repeatedly cast a rope toward shore.
It did little more than recoil and retreat.
One of Reverend Whitemore’s sons from Eel River
impulsively stripped his winter garments
and flung himself into icy waves, his prayers
unanswered as he failed to grasp the nautical knot.

And then you, equally young Charles,
a first mate the Barnstable Patriot will later say
“was as active and competent an officer
as ever walked the deck of a ship,”
grabbed a thick oar for floatation and jumped
into water so cold you turned blue. The reverend
and others witnessed your body breach
several times as you were hurled, lost your grip,
and went under. I suspect the freezing salt
filled your lungs before they could collapse.

A fortnight later, they auctioned off
the ship’s hull and sold some of the goods
you wanted desperately to save. And then
someone designed the broken ship
on a sea rippling like a migraine, and penned
a couplet of sacrifice and challenge,
even for those who never leave the land.

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Sascha Feinstein’s dozen books include the poetry collections Misterioso (winner of the Hayden Carruth Award from Copper Canyon Press) and Ajanta’s Ledge. His next book, Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers, will be out in March. Individual poems have appeared in APR, North American Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares and elsewhere. Honors include the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Artist of the Year. He is an endowed Professor at Lycoming College, where, since 1996, he’s edited Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature.