Perhaps an omen? In 1902, the schooner John R. Noyes, pictured here in photographer John Dumont’s copyrighted photograph of 1888 titled “Stranded”, was wrecked on Lake Ontario, 23 miles away from Charlotte, then part of the city of Rochester, New York. A rescue mission took place on December 14, 1902, which saved the lives of 5 people aboard the Noyes, and a Gold Lifesaving Medal was awarded to the crew of the life-saving station at Charlotte.  More information on the rescue can be gleaned in the account “The Rescue of The John R. Noyes” posted in a 2012 blog by Dick and Libby’s Tarwathie Cruising Log.

Editorial Comment for this plate:

“STRANDED.”

SEVERAL months ago there appeared in Sun and Shade a photogravure entitled, “After the Storm,” which deservedly attracted a wide-spread attention. It was from a negative by John E. Dumont, and though not in the line of work which we are accustomed to see from his gifted camera, was, nevertheless, quite as artistic as his well-known figure compositions, and at once became as popular as they.

“Stranded” was made the same day, while the storm was still raging, and, in our opinion, is a superior production to its companion. Mr. Dumont writes: “Stranded’ is the picture of a Lake schooner that was driven on the beach during a heavy gale, while trying to enter the port of Charlotte. * * * She was full of water, and was pounding hard, the crew having been just taken off by the life-saving crew. I tried to hire some of the crew to be drawn out over the water, so that I could photograph them in the buoy, but none of them cared to risk their lives for my amusement. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to have a friend hang on to the tripod to keep my camera from blowing over. The clouds were very black, and occasionally a wave would strike the lighthouse (shown in the distance), and the spray would dash entirely over it.”

How well the dark-green tone selected by Mr. Edwards, for printing the photogravure, harmonizes with the spirit of the subject. As we look on this picture, we are reminded of Longfellow’s verses in “The Wreck of the Hesperus “—

“The breakers were right beneath her bows,
 She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept her crew
Like icicles from her deck.

“She struck where the white and fleecy waves

Looked soft as carded wool,

But the cruel rocks, they gored her side

Like the horns of an angry bull. (p. 443)