a direct trade, cutting out the cost of reshipment. So they
bought a ship. We do not know her name, she is always spoken of
as the "Great Shippe," although she was only one hundred tons;
perhaps the title was given her because the colonists were
staking so much on this venture. If it succeeded, their
prosperity might be assured; if it failed, they must give up the
sea and commerce as a dependence and turn their energies to
agriculture. The "Great Shippe" was a new boat, said to have been
built in Rhode Island, and she was loaded principally with wheat
and peas shipped in bulk, with West Indies hides, beaver skins,
and what silver plate could be spared for exchange in London. Her
cargo altogether was worth about twenty-five thousand dollars,
which was a large sum in those days, especially in a new and
struggling colony.

The master of the ship was the same Captain Lamberton we have
heard of before. He was a brave and bold skipper, but it is said
that he was not altogether pleased with the ship when he first
saw her; that he did not like her lines and thought her not quite
seaworthy. Other people, too, besides Captain Lamberton,
complained that she was not only badly built, but badly loaded,
with the light goods of the cargo below and the heavy above, and
some old seamen predicted that the grain would shift in rough
weather and make trouble. These were mostly rumors, however, and
few paid attention to them at the time; but long afterward, when
people talked over the strange fate of the "Great Shippe,"
Captain Lamberton's words, "This ship will be our grave," were
recalled and believed to have been a prophecy.

That winter of 1646 was a bitterly cold one in Connecticut, and