Hell Gate

Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. 

Returning to England from a year’s tour of Germany and France, Irving wrote Tales of a Traveller. “The Money Diggers” section of this collection contains five connected stories about pirates and buried treasure. In the first tale

“Hell’s Gate”  Irving’s narrative persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker, recalls the thrills and terrors of sailing through “Hell’s Gate” channel in Long Island Sound. At flood tide the passage was flat and calm, but at half tide “Hell’s Gate” lived up to its name. Associated in local lore with shipwrecks, murder, and pirates’ gold… Read this story to find adventures that will not leave you indifferent.