Earlier this week in a thread about hang gliding over Lake George Imhotep posted a link to what can best be described as a ballad to the five RMC cadets who drowned on the lake in 1956.
“How the hell does anyone drown on Lake George” you all cry, everyone does when the story gets related. While I was aware that they’d drowned the details had always been hazy. I’m reproducing the poem by Chaplain Jim Cosgrove for archival purposes. (If anyone objects they should contact me on john@the-riotact.com)
- On a Sunday in July in the year of 56,
On a lake that’s known for beauty and for danger
There came a group of men with some sailing craft to fix –
For some that evening death would be no stranger
When the College sought to broaden the horizon of her men,
To become less insular and more diverse
They could not then foresee that most tragic moment when,
The blessing of their sailing turned to curse
Staff Cadet Noble made request for a visit to the lake,
To help maintain the College Sailing craft
To carry out this mission seven others he did take,
While on the truck they probably joked and laughed
There was Pritchard, Gosling, Ford, Colquhoun and Jorgensen,
Also Reilly and Alizzie shared the ride
They were in the prime of youth, they were strong and healthy men
As sailors though just Noble qualified.
Though the water was quite cold there was little wind about
The surface of the lake was fairly calm
Colquhoun and Jorgensen rigged a VJ and sailed out
There was no sense this task could end in harm
They were sailing close to shore, just a little distance out
And as they turned the craft the boat capsized
From their icy water plunge they were seen to get about
The future peril not yet realized
These two continued sailing while the others worked their chores
And then work stopped for lunch at 2pm
They called them in from sailing and were seen to turn for shore
By meal’s end though they had not joined with them.
For these two had come to trouble, now a greater distance out,
Both clinging to the hull their boat upturned
Their returning to the clubhouse had never come about
To sail against the wind they’d never learned.
On shore their friends proceeded to sail out to make a rescue
In an engineer assault craft from the fleet
But on reaching these two fellows their attempt could not continue
As their boat collapsed when fate dislodged a seat.
Now five were in the water and some tried to swim for shore,
On land they searched for motor boats in vain
They grabbed an older VJ and with wood to use as oars
A rescue mission set out once again
They paddled through the icy waves and came across a swimmer,
Near exhausted and affected by the cold
They slung him ‘cross the cockpit and with daylight growing dimmer
They found two others clinging to a hull
With these two dragged aboard there were now five on the boat
And only three were conscious furthermore
With the overloaded VJ trying hard to stay afloat
They turned around to paddle back to shore
There was no sign of the others and the going very slow,
To make it worse a head wind came with night
Alone Alizzi waited there was no way he could know
That tragedy was just beyond his sight
Alizzi started paddling just as the truck returned
To take the party back home to their quarters
His paddling back to shore was the way the drivers learned
That seven men were stranded on these waters
He sent the drivers searching for a phone at nearby farms
And said that he would wait till help arrived
They still were unaware of the gravity of harm
That faced their colleagues struggling for their lives
The driver was not able to locate a telephone
And returned to RMC in failing light
The army DUKW was readied but the headwind now had grown
And the tiny boat was blown into the night
On board they saw the truck driving off o’er Geary’s Gap
As the offshore wind now blew them further out
To add to their despair Colquhoun was in a flap,
Deliriously he tried to thrash about
On shore Alizzi waited but when no one had returned,
He thought it best to start back on his own
He caught a lift which took him back to college where he learned
The DUKWs had left but all else was unknown
On the lake the dark descended and they huddled on the boat,
They tried to keep her pointed to the waves
The VJ took on water and was barely now afloat,
Each minute stole their hope of being saved.
Their hopes of rescue raised when at last they saw the lights
As the army DUKW patrolled along the beach
The 50 metre range of their lights searched through the night
But the drowning men were well beyond their reach
It seemed that all the elements conspired against their task,
A moonless night, a strong wind, driving spray
They knew not where to search – there was no one there to ask,
Concern was quickly turning to dismay.
Just then a large wave crashed against the boat and it capsized,
Colquhoun and Jorgensen were seen no more
Just three men now were clinging to the VJ on its side,
And death still had not finished with its score
Another wave crashed down and these three were swept asunder,
It seemed that fate had finished its attack
Lake George would keep poor Reilly’s body hidden deep down under,
Two months would pass before it gave him back
But somehow in the wash Ford and Gosling found the strength
To grasp as drowning men their little boat
And that is where they stayed till the Army Dukw at length
Chanced to find them – close to death but still afloat.
After four cold freezing hours these two men had now been saved,
Their task of rescue tragically unfilled
For five cadets this lake was this evening now their grave,
Five future leaders accidentally killed
When the college finally learned of this elemental slaughter
They joined the searching party to a man
Till 3am they toiled on the shore and chest deep water,
And started back as soon as day began
They toiled all through the morn but it wasn’t till 3 when
A chopper brought a little bit of closure
Still wearing a life jacket they’d located Jorgensen,
Autopsy found he died from cold exposure.
They dragged the lake with hooks, and planes flew searching low,
They waded through the shoreline and the marsh
No matter how they tried Lake George would not let go,
The waiting and not knowing cruelly harsh
When Reilly was discovered on the thirteenth of September ,
Colquhoun and Noble’s bodies were nearby
The next day they retrieved Pritchard, the last remaining member
Of this fateful group all much too young to die.
Hindsight is a precious gift, if only they had known
The wind would push them to the other shore
An even greater irony – the winds of time have blown,
In Lake George there’s no water any more.
The idea of letting guys into a boat who didn’t know how to sail into the wind makes this former sailing instructor’s blood run cold, and the lack of communications seems almost surreal in this day and age.
For the non war-nerds a DUKW is an amphibious truck.
I’d have thought some of our local playwrights could do something pretty powerful with this.
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