1 note
[Note 242.1] "In a splendid steam yacht I took up my station":- We cannot be sure if this song refers to a specific vessel or to a generic "steam yacht". See also Note 242.4
[Note 242.2] "My Lady Finikin" :- Finnikin : Affecting extreme refinement; dainty, fastidious, mincing; excessively precise in trifles. Also of things: Over-delicately wrought or finished; also, insignificant, paltry, trifling. [OED]
[Note 247.2] "Now alas! All hopes are lost" :- The date on which the vessel was formally declared lost is not known.
[Note 242.4] "We landed at seven P. M.":- having started at 8 in the morning, an 11 hour journey. Steamboats were first fitted with high-pressure "puffer" engines, based on Richard Trevithick's design, in 1818 and by 1820 the passage time to Margate was down to six and a half hours. If the journey time is reasonably accurate and not exaggerated grossly for comic effect, it would be consistent with one of the first Margate steamers; perhaps the Margery or the Thames
[Note 247.3] "from New York she did set sail...To England they were bound" :- On March 11, 1841, President left New York bound for Liverpool on her third eastbound voyage