Less than an hour later the ship struck the top of Alden’s Rock, tearing a hole in the engine compartment. Before the water quenched the boilers, Capt. Borland gave the order to steam directly for land.
He began by boiling down spruce sap on his parents wood stove in Bangor. Then he came down to Portland to try and sell it. Nobody much bit on his idea.
That’s when Helen moved to Boston, with no formal mechanical training, and embarked on her career as the 19th century’s most successful female inventor.
That night, blinding snow, hurricane-force winds and 40-foot seas blew up as two storms — one from the south and one from the west — joined forces in ravaging New England.