City of Boston (II)

DESCRIPTION: Father left "to cross the briny main, In the missing City of Boston." Child asks mother to stop crying: father "may arrive tomorrow." But he has dreamt he saw the City of Boston "sink beneath the briny wave And every soul... perish'd in watery grave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (Broadside, Bodleian, Bod8503 Firth c.12(77))
KEYWORDS: separation travel death drowning dream storm wreck children father husband mother wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 28, 1870 - City of Boston bound to Liverpool from New York via Boston and Halifax lost at sea with 207(?) dead (per Northern Shipwrecks Database)
FOUND IN:
Roud #V3333
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Bod8503 Firth c.12(77), "Child's Dream; or The City of Boston" ("Mother, dear give over crying), unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "City of Boston (I)" (subject)
NOTES [118 words]: According to Robert C. Parsons, Cape Race: Stories from the Coast that Sank the Titanic, Flanker Press, 2011, pp. 111-113, the City of Boston was a liner belonging to the Inman Line, which named its ships "City of XXX," e.g. City of Boston, City of Philadelphia. Based on the picture on p. 112 of Parsons, she used both sail and steam. No trace was ever found of her; Parsons says that 177 were lost.
There is a footnote. Inman Line ships tended to sail a more northerly route than other liners. Newfoundlanders in 1892 found a "bank" (region of shallow water) about 32 km. ENE of Cape Race, which they thought was formed from the wreck of the City of Boston. But Parsons cites no direct evidence. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: RcCiBos2

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