With a hat tip to Portland’s own Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“Such was the wreck of the Hedge Fund

In the midnight and the snow!

Christ save us all from a debt like this,

On the reef of David Lemoine’s Woe!”

We’ve dusted off our poetry collection because of similarities between Longfellow’s “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and the saga of Mainsail II, the hedge fund which collapsed last fall and took $20 million of our money with it.

The Hesperus of the poem was victimized by its captain’s misjudgment. The schooner sailed into dangerous winter seas and wrecked on a reef off Gloucester, Mass. All hands – including the captain’s daughter – were lost.

Poor judgment is the scapegoat for Mainsail, too. The state treasurer, its broker and rating agencies all misjudged Mainsail’s danger – its credit rating went junk almost overnight. The state’s investment, so far, is a total loss.

Save us all from a debt like this, indeed.

Now there’s word about an auction of Mainsail debris next month, from which the treasurer, David Lemoine, says the state may recoup some of the investment. Our take is now valued at 33 cents on the dollar, or about $7 million.

Of course, this means we are still losing $13 million, a sour apple mitigated only by the perspective of passing time. Since news of Mainsail broke, the American financial system has hemorrhaged billions.

After taxpayer-funded bailouts of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plus sovereign equity rescues of lenders like Citibank, the possible loss of $13 million in one lousy investment (with maybe $7 million coming back) doesn’t seem that bad. It’s livable.

Lesser investors in Mainsail- called “mezzanine” or “capital” buyers – are promised to receive nothing from any coming auction. Maine is a “Senior Secured Partner,” which means it might get some of our money back.

And Lemoine says we still earned $26.16 million from its investments last year, despite Mainsail.

It is quite the departure from last fall, when Mainsail’s demise led to calls for Lemoine’s as well. (Professionally speaking, of course.) While Lemoine did buy us into this mess, there was always plenty blame to spread.

The state’s broker, Merrill Lynch, remains under scrutiny by the Attorney General for its practices. Lemoine says further information about this investigation is coming in the “near future.”

Plus, situations like Mainsail have finally devoted attention to all-powerful credit rating agencies, whose Mainsail appraisals were dead wrong – and therefore lethal to investors. This inability to gauge Mainsail’s dangers clearly was like the gloom and snow that imperiled the literary Hesperus.

There’s much about Mainsail and the doomed vessel that is tragically alike.

Yet unlike Longfellow’s ship of fate, at least Maine’s “Wreck of the Hedge Fund” seems somewhat salvageable.