[1] Baker succeeded Lowell Mason as music teacher in the Boston Public School system in 1841.
[1] He became music director at the Federal Street Church in Boston, where he taught voice lessons.
[1] His compositions were performed during his lifetime not only in the population centers surrounding Boston, but also in small communities wishing to showcase "ambitious" works.
[9] Gilbert Chase, commenting strictly on the music of The Burning Ship, stated it was of no "particular distinction".
This cantata used a theme, common at the time for "genteel" presentations, of introducing mother and child to extreme peril and subsequently concluding with an obligatory happy ending using a plot of divine intervention.