Coming south, they had split up into three groups with one following the Passumpsic River Valley south. Popular and official references H.P. Lovecraft refers to the river in his horror short story The Whisperer in Darkness as a river in which unusual bodies were seen floating after the heavy Vermont floods of 1927. One United States Navy ship has been named for the river. USS Passumpsic (AO-107) was an oiler that served in commission in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1973. She then decommissioned, transferred to the Military Sealift Command, was redesignated USNS Passumpsic (T-AO-107), and continued to serve in support of the U.S. Navy with a civilian crew as a United States Naval Ship until 1991. See also List of rivers of Vermont References Rivers of Vermont Tributaries of the Connecticut River Lyndon, Vermont St. Johnsbury, Vermont Barnet, Vermont Waterford, Vermont Newark, Vermont Bodies of water of Caledonia County, Vermont Bodies of water of Essex County, Vermont Rivers of Orleans County, Vermont Vermont placenames of Native American origin