08/11/2026
A small headstone in the Babcock Cemetery in Pawcatuck, to the two lost daughters of Charlotte Noyes Babcock and David Babcock. David was the captain of the clipper ship "Young America", and his wife Charlotte accompanied him on numerous voyages to China, India and the Pacific. Charlotte wrote her reminiscences of her seven years at sea, which also includes her heartbreaking memories of the loss of these two infants.
"Once more at sea on the good ship "Young America", bound again for San Francisco and perhaps around the world, leaving New York this time with sad hearts because of the death of our little Lulu, who, only a few weeks after our arrival home from the Sandwich Islands and while on a visit to relatives in the country, was taken suddenly ill with inflammation of the lungs and died in a few days. This was our first sorrow, and it seemed very hard to bear. It was in the lovely month of June, snowballs were in blossom and were placed around her in her little coffin, fit emblems of her purity and innocence. Though we mourned her deeply, yet we tried to be reconciled and feel it was best, for He hath said "of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." For years, in fact to this very day, I cannot see snowballs without a pang at my heart and a vision of that lovely infant as she lay sleeping with them around her."
In the China Sea: "The weather was also so hot and so utterly devoid of life as to make it an effort to do anything. Now the baby was taken sick again and grew gradually worse, requiring the most unremitting care and attention day and night from both myself and the good nurse. All we could do was make her as comfortable as possible and pray for cooler weather. When we passed through the Straits of Sunda and out into the Indian Ocean, the cooler weather came. The change was too great in her weak condition, sending the disease to her brain and she died the very next day. Ah, what grief was this to bury our precious babe in the fathomless ocean - no flowers to place around her little form and no stone to make her resting place. The sobbing of the water was her only requiem but here was no alternative and so the ship was "hove to." Her father read the burial service with a trembling voice while I and the good old nurse with Nellie sat near by. The officers and sailors all stood around with uncovered heads. Then the little form wrapped in pure white canvas was launched in the great deep, there to remain till the sea shall give up its dead. But what does it matter after all- she was pure and sinless and must be safe in the loving Father's arms. For many days afterwards I was unable to be out of bed. The long strain and fatigue of constant watching and care, together with the shock and grief, kept me weak. For a long time I could not go on that side of the ship where her little form was last seen."
