The Sinking Of The Larchmont

A warm saloon, a clear night sky, and a cheap ticket from Providence to New York sounds like an easy win until the ocean decides otherwise. We’re telling the story of the 1907 sinking of the Larchmont, the deadliest maritime disaster in Rhode Island history, and the kind of shipwreck where the danger is not just the water, but the cold, the darkness, and the steam. 

We start with the Larchmont’s past life as the Cumberland, its rushed rebuild, and the string of groundings, collisions, and scandals that earn it a “cursed ship” reputation long before the final voyage. From there we hit the night of February 11th: negative temperatures, heavy winds, big seas, and a crew trying to stay on schedule while passengers drink, laugh, and settle in for a 12 hour ride that feels like a mini cruise. 

Then everything narrows to one encounter off Jamestown with the coal schooner Harry Knowlton. We walk through the navigation rules for sail vs steam, why right of way matters, and how a last second turn to starboard turns a close pass into a catastrophic collision. The impact ruptures the engine area, releases scalding steam, kills the generator, and leaves people trapped between drowning, steam burns, and hypothermia in the freezing Atlantic. We also dig into the Block Island rescues, the investigation that assigns blame, the rumor mill that follows, and the lost passenger manifest that helps change maritime safety practices. 

If you’re into maritime history, shipwreck stories, and disaster analysis with real lessons, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a rating or review so more people can find the show.

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Transcript

Why Old Steamships Terrify Me

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I know I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but I do like a good cruise. At least a modern one. Go back a hundred years and well, probably not so much. Sure, getting to see a steamship with its paddle wheels spinning sounds like fun, but is it really? There's way too many things to worry about going wrong. Like a spontaneous fire in the coal bunker. Or a badly repaired boiler deciding to blow the fuck up. Or a random three masted schooner slamming into the side of the ship and opening it up to the sea. Like what happened to the Larchmont in nineteen oh seven off the coast of Rhode Island. So what happened? I'm

Setting The Stage And Sponsor Bit

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Andrew, and this is History's A Disaster. Tonight, we're diving into the icy waters off Rhode Island for the worst maritime accident in the state's history, the sinking of the Larchmont. And tonight's episode is brought to you by Coley's Coal Balls. After his mockery-ridden rollout by the Department of the Interior, Coley has decided to leave government service behind to launch his own line of coal-flavored shaved ice. With flavors like anthracite dreams, bitchin' bitumenis, and lightning lignet. There's a flavor for everyone. So get yours today. Coley's coal balls are now available at your favorite mine shaft. And don't forget to ask about the free pickaxe inside. The Larchmont

The Larchmont’s Cursed Reputation

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started its shipping life off as the Cumberland. She was built in 1885 for the old colony steamboat company at a yard in Bath, Maine. She was 252 feet long with a 37-foot beam. This steam-powered side wheeler weighed in it just over 1,600 tons. And like many of the ships on the show, she earned a cursed reputation after numerous incidents. In July of 1902, she was hit by another ship just outside of Boston Harbor. The captain tried to save her and pushed the sinking ship hard to shore. She barely made it and the Cumberland sank in the shallow waters of the harbor. The Eastern Steamship Company, after seeing the damage done to the side of the ship, said fuck it and called it a total loss and left the Cumberland there. They just didn't want to deal with the hassle of fixing it up. Fortunately, the Joyline Steamship Company stepped in and bought the damaged ship for 40 grand. A lot of money in 1902, but not as much as building a new one. And since the Joyline was notoriously cheap, as well as a train company trying to move into steamships, it worked out pretty well for them. So they buy the Cumberland and in less than a month they fix her up and rename her the Larchmont. Unfortunately, most of the people in the area still remember her as the Cumberland and saw her as something of a cursed ship. And as the Larchmont, things would continue to happen to reinforce that reputation. Things like being ran aground not once, but twice. Another collision with a different ship and a fire down in its storage hold. And of course, a murder that went unsolved. They had suspicions of who did it, but could never actually prove anything. And this all took place in the span of about five years, from nineteen oh two to nineteen oh seven. Its most popular route that the Larchmont ran was from Providence, Rhode Island to New York City for the low price of a single dollar, which is about thirty six today. And for an extra dollar, you could get your very own stateroom and really travel in style. Which made them a hell of a lot cheaper than a lot of the other steamship lines working the same or similar routes. So it made them a pretty attractive alternative for going anywhere. And the Larchmont was always on the move. Gotta make that money, and an idle ship isn't earning anything. So if they weren't heading to New York, they were going somewhere. They had multiple different routes for the Larchmont to run. And by 1907, the Larchmont was captained by George McVeigh, who was just twenty eight, he was the youngest captain working in the area. He had previously earned a bit of a reputation on a previous ship when it caught fire and McVeigh saved forty three of the passengers on board. So the Joyline was pretty pleased with him and eventually gave him command of the Larchmont two years after the incident.

A Brutal Night Leaving Providence

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So jumping ahead to the night of february eleventh, nineteen oh seven, the Larchmont was leaving Rhode Island for New York and they were a little behind schedule. They had been delayed because of the shit weather and some snowfall. Even for New England, it was fucking cold. Negative two degrees with forty five mile an hour winds, cold enough to chill the bones and make you rethink stepping outside for a few seconds. The seas were swelling up with twenty foot waves as it left the Bay Area behind. Despite the shit start, the night sky was perfectly clear, a good night for sailing. As long as you stayed bundled up or just stay out of the freezing wind. Hell, better yet, just stay home. Don't go out in this shit. It's negative two degrees. Do you really need to be out and about in that kind of temperature? Anyways, despite all that nonsense, the passengers were all safely inside the nice warm steamship and not out in the cold. Everything was going great. They were on a nice little mini cruise and living it up in the ship's saloon. They had plenty of entertainment to enjoy as they boozed the night away, from a magician to some live music. There was fun to be had and beer to drink. They had a twelve hour boat ride to New York, and they were gonna enjoy every minute they could. As they drank and enjoyed their time on the ship, Captain McVeigh made his rounds as pilot John Anson actually controlled the ship. Anson was a bit aggressive and liked to push the ship fast, which is, you know, always a good sign on this show. Go fast, get there quicker is the way to go. Especially since there was other ships on the sea with them. And since radios weren't really a thing back then, they just had to rely on their lights to see other ships in the night.

Right Of Way And A Fatal Mistake

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So when they got around Jamestown, Rhode Island, Anson saw the bow and stern lights of a schooner loaded down with coal. This was the Harry Knowlton, a three masted one hundred and twenty foot schooner under the command of Captain Frank Haley and bound for Boston. Coal schooners at the time were a common sight in the area. They were slower and far less maneuverable than steamships, considering they traveled under sail and were completely at the mercy of the winds to go anywhere, which put them at a distinct disadvantage to the steamships. The Harry Knowlton was also much smaller than the Larchmont, and they were essentially on a direct course for one another. Back then, as it is now, a steamship, since it's always under power and not at the mercy of the winds, is required to make way for any ship under sail. It's much easier for them to move than the schooner. So Captain Haley held course knowing the Larchmont needed to yield way for him. However, pilot Anson apparently didn't get the memo and didn't budge. He held course. They should pass by each other, but it was gonna be really close. Unfortunately, Anson lost his nerve and yelled at the quartermaster in the pilot house with him to turn the ship to starboard. And by turning the ship to starboard, he threw the Larchmott broadside right into the path of the Harry Knowlton. With nowhere else to go and no time to react, the Harry Knowlton slammed into the port side of the much larger Larchmont just in front of the steam wheel. Too late, Anson sounded the whistle four times. The international sign of distress. The schooner sliced into the side of the Larchmont. The waves briefly held the ships locked together. As the waves separated the ships again, both began to take on water. The Nolton suffered less damage in the aftermath of the collision. The Larchmont, however, was fucked. The Nolton

Steam, Darkness, And Rapid Sinking

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hit the absolute worst spot it could have on a steamship. It burst open the steam engine, releasing clouds of boiling steam into the interior of the ship. On top of that, they took out the ship's generator, which killed all the electricity throughout the ship. So now the Larchmont was dead in the water and thrown into pitch blackness as it started taking out water at nearly two feet per minute. As the ship sank, the rising waters hit the boiler, releasing more toxic steam clouds into the ship. The passengers on board were starting to panic as they faced the possibility of two different horrific deaths a slow death to hypothermia and frostbite, or a painful, agonizing death of being poisoned or scalded by steam. Passengers in the lower decks faced this terrible decision first. As the lower levels filled with water, they struggled to escape the water and drowning by swimming towards the ceiling. However, the ceiling area was quickly filling with steam, which led them to either drown or be scalded or poisoned. They had no escape. Anyone that did manage to escape the interior of the ship and make it out on the deck were hit with zero degree temperatures, and a bitterly freezing wind blowing off the waters. It was after eleven PM, so most of the passengers were getting ready for bed. In their panic to escape, no one was dressed properly. No one thought of it. Their terror stricken minds sought only to escape the watery grave and burning steam within the ship. Everyone panicked as they tried to lower the lifeboats and get away from the doomed ship that was listing hard to port. The crew mostly was nowhere to be seen. Captain McVeigh had ordered the lifeboat nearest him and the crew to be lowered so they could get away from the toxic steam. He would later claim that he'd never be able to find anyone on the ship in the steam, so he took to the lifeboat to search the waters for passengers. They dropped into the water on the starboard side of the ship and found it quote unquote impossible to get to the port to search because of well reasons. Yeah, the press didn't buy that shit either. So much for Captain being the last one off the ship. There was also some other fuckery going around after the fact about him refusing a woman from getting onto his lifeboat, something that would later be refuted by a Navy veteran saying there was no way that happened because of the conditions on the water. But anyways, as they struggled to survive, the Harry Knowlton barely made it ashore. It was taking on water, but Captain Haley and his six man crew managed to bring it close enough to shore to get to his lifeboat and make it safely to Charlestown, Rhode Island. Unfortunately, though, most of the crew was unaware of what exactly happened or how badly the large mountain was damaged, so they made no mention of it. No calls saying, hey, maybe someone should go check on them. Nope, nothing. Anyways, the lifebats that could be launched were lowered into the raging sea, whipped by a fierce winter wind. Many of the passengers who managed to get aboard them found themselves only slightly better off than those left in the water or on the sinking ship. The small lifeboats were dropped into the heavy waves that soon spilled over and into them, filling them with freezing cold water or just outright capsizing them. So many of the initial survivors that managed to make it off the ship would not survive the lifeboats. The combination of being wet and the freezing winds would bring about severe hypothermia that would claim multiple victims. There was some reports that at least one of the passengers chose to commit suicide rather than suffer a slow freezing death in the lifeboats. The few who managed to survive the night were forced to watch as their companions in the boats slowly froze to death one by one before they had any hope of being rescued. With nothing else they could do, passengers were left to drift throughout the night, pushed by the waves and the wind towards Black Island, some five miles from where the Larchmont went down.

Block Island Survivors And Rescues

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By 6 AM, the first survivor had reached shore. Fred Hegersol, a sixteen year old passenger from the steamer, stumbled up to the North Lighthouse on Black Island. Freezing and barely coherent, warned of more people in the water. The islanders quickly got their rescue people together and rushed to the beaches. Soon more lifeboats from the Larchmont washed up on shore. Far too many of the boats were found floating containing only the dead, frozen with inches of ice clinging to them where they sat or lay, the living having either been rescued earlier or having succumbed alongside them. All the survivors were severely frostbitten and suffered from extreme exposure. Once the Blaislanders realized how bad the Larchmont disaster was, they reasoned that some of the lifeboats may have missed the island and might have been swept out to sea. Three of the fishing boats, the Elsie, the Clara E, and the Teresa, set off from the island in search of other survivors. About a mile east of Black Island, the crew from the Elsie spotted what appeared to be a raft with people clinging to it. Upon closer inspection, the raft turned out to be a portion of the Larchmont's hurricane deck with fifteen people aboard. Eight were still alive and seven had froze to death, at considerable risk to themselves and their boat due to the dreadful cold and the extremely rough seas. The crew of the LC transferred the survivors to their vessel and then rushed them to the island for medical care. These were the last survivors of the Larchmont to be found. All eight of the crew members of the LC suffered badly from the rescue efforts that day, ranging from minor frostbite to chronic respiratory conditions. Edgar Littlefield, one of the crew members, had both of his hands severely frostbitten during the rescue, and his lungs were badly damaged, so much so that he had to spend an extended period of time in a sanatorium on the mainland. When he returned to Black Island, his continued ill health prevented him from going back to fishing and he was forced to take up a life of farming, which, quite honestly, had to have been a fate worse than death. However, despite this, Edgar Littlefield and the other crew from the LC said they regretted nothing and would do it again if they had to. For their efforts, the crew of the LC received gold medals from the Carnegie Hero Fund, which had been established specifically to reward civilians who performed incredible acts of heroism. The Hero Fund also distributed cash awards to the eight fishermen to provide college educations for all of their kids.

Investigation, Blame, And Rumors

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After the Larchmont disaster, the Steamboat Inspection Service of the Department of Commerce and Labor conducted an inquiry into the accident to determine the cause and to assign blame. In the final paragraph of their report, the service reported, we find from the time that the schooner Harry Knowlton and Steamer Larchbot approached each other in such a way as to involve risk of collision that schooner Harry Knowl was navigated in full compliance with the provision of Article 21 steering and sailing rules for Atlantic and Pacific Coast inland waters, that the movements of Steamer Larchbot were in direct violation of Articles 20 and 22 of the said steering and sailing rules, and we therefore attributed the loss of steamer Larchbot and Schooner Harry Knowlton to careless and unskillful navigation on the part of the first pilot of the Larchmont, John L. Anson. This judgment was based upon the fact that a sailing vessel, like we talked about, automatically had right of way over a powered ship in public waters. Which just means the Larchmont was responsible for getting out of the way of the Harry Knowton. Therefore, when the two ships collided, the fault was attributed to the person in charge of the Larchmont at the time, first pilot John Anson. During their interviews with the steamboat inspection service, the crew of the Harry Knowl testified that they had maintained a steady course throughout the incident. This testimony was in direct conflict with that given by the surviving Larchmont officers who stated that the other boat had altered course at least twice and that it was in fact these alterations that caused the collision. Although the truth will probably never be known. Several months after the accident, a rumor began circulating among members of the New England shipping community that at the time of the accident, no one was actually at the helm of the Knowlton. In an attempt to escape the bitter cold and terribly freezing winds, the crew had lashed the ship's wheel and had all gone down below deck to keep warm, allowing the ship to go wherever the hell they wanted with the strong winds pushing it. This was something that was never actually proven, but does explain a few things. However, McVeigh would continue his maritime career for several years. However, years later he was captain of another ship that suffered a boiler explosion that killed fifty five people. He was in no way responsible for this, but the stink of the Larchmont disaster followed him around and he was stripped of his position and banned from ever commanding a ship again. Of

Death Toll, Missing Manifest, Legacy

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the roughly one hundred and fifty six passengers and crew members aboard during the collision of the Larchmont, we don't exactly know how many was on there since the passenger list went down with the ship, only nineteen survived, and two of those would later die to pneumonia within a week. Seventy four ice encrusted bodies washed up on the beaches of Black Island and were shipped home for burial. The remainder either went down with the ship or drifted out to sea in lifeboats, never to be seen again. Several years later, the quartermaster who had been in the pilot's house during the collision claimed on his deathbed there had been over three hundred and thirty people on board the Larchmont when it went down. Now this was the first and only time that number was ever mentioned. And since there was no passenger manifest, the true number will never really be known. Because of the Larchmont and the unknown numbers of victims and the loss of the manifest, it would soon be required that a copy of the manifest must remain somewhere on land as well as being on the ship.

Wreck Discovery And Closing Thoughts

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Over time, the Larchmont was largely forgotten, but on August 25th, 1964, scuba divers located the wreck off Watch Hill in one hundred and thirty feet of water. It has since become something of a hot spot for scuba divers to be able to go down to see the wreck. And that was the sinking of the Larchmont. Thanks for listening, and if you liked the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your Apple Choice. And you can reach out to the show at histories of disaster at gmail dot com with questions, comments, or suggestions. As well as following the show on social media that I'm not really keeping up with right now. Like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever. And share the episode. Your friends will love it. And just a weekly reminder that if you're going on a boat, take your little penguin friends. They do love a good boat ride. Plus, they're more likely to survive if the shipwrecks. And maybe, just maybe, they might make sure you do too. So chase that dream. Live for today, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Thanks and goodbye.