Book excerpt: The weather that night was bitterly cold with the temperature hovering around zero degrees. Although the skies were starry and clear, a fierce wind whipped the water into waves up to twenty feet high. Despite these brutal conditions, the Larchmont proceeded on its scheduled run to New York, leaving Providence only a half-hour late at around seven o'clock. The 23-year-old Larchmont was a wooden, side-wheel steamship, 252 feet long by 37 feet wide, painted white with two tall black smokestacks. At ten o'clock, the ship exited the Narragansett Bay and turned west into the Block Island Sound. But unluckily, Larchmont collided with the schooner Harry Knowlton. Thrown from their bunks, passengers of the Larchmont panicked and ran onto the ship's deck. Haphazardly loaded lifeboats set out only partially full, and shrieks from those left behind were heard in the distance. Nearly 150 passengers were lost that night. The men and women of Block Island courageously aided those in need and dealt with the horrors that washed ashore. Controversy swirled around the conduct of the captain and crew of the Larchmont as investigators tried to determine who was responsible for the collision. This book is about that tragedy. If you want to find out the truth, read this book.