Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem was inspired by the Blizzard the 1839, which ruined the phibìc Shore because that 12 hours, beginning on January 6, 1839. Twenty ships and also forty resides were lost throughout the storm. The probable subject of the story is the schooner Favorite, i beg your pardon sank on a rock referred to as Norman’s Woe turn off the coastline of Gloucester, v all hand lost. After ~ the storm, the human body of a mrs tied to a mast was uncovered on the shore in between Gloucester and Magnolia. The really Hesperus was a schooner which to be seriously damaged if docked in Boston during the storm. Hesperus way in Gloucester is called after this poem.

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The wreck of the Hesperus by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

It to be the schooner Hesperus,That sailed the wintry sea;And the skipper had actually taken his small daughtèr,To bear the company.

Blue were she eyes together the fairy-flax,Her cheeks choose the dawn the day,And her bosom white together the hawthorn buds,That ope in the month of May.

The skipper the stood next to the helm,His pipe remained in his mouth,And he watched exactly how the veering flaw walk blowThe smoke now West, now South.

Then up and spake one old Sailòr,Had sailed to the Spanish Main,“I pray thee, put right into yonder port,For I fear a hurricane.

“Last night, the moon had a gold ring,And to-night no moon us see!”The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,And a scornful laugh laugh he.

Colder and also louder go out the wind,A gale native the Northeast,The snow dropped hissing in the brine,And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amainThe vessel in that strength;She shuddered and paused, choose a frighted steed,Then leaped she cable’s length.

“Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr,And execute not tremble so;For I deserve to weather the roughest galeThat ever wind go blow.”

He sheathe her warm in his seaman’s coatAgainst the stinging blast;He reduced a rope from a broken spar,And bound her to the mast.

“O father! ns hear the church-bells ring,Oh say, what may it be?”“‘It is a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!”And the steered for the open sea.

“O father! ns hear the sound of guns,

Oh say, what might it be?”“Some delivery in distress, that cannot liveIn together an angry sea!”

“O father! I watch a gleaming light,Oh say, what might it be?”But the father answered never a word,A frozen corpse was he.Lashed come the helm, all stiff and stark,

With his confront turned come the skies,The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snowOn his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and also prayedThat savèd she could be;And she assumed of Christ, who stilled the waveOn the Lake the Galilee.

And quick through the midnight dark and also drear,Through the whistling sleet and snow,Like a sheeted ghost, the courage sweptTow’rds the reef the Norman’s Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts betweenA sound come from the land;It to be the sound the the trampling surfOn the rocks and the tough sea-sand.The breakers were right beneath her bows,

She drifted a dreary wreck,And a whooping billow swept the crewLike icicles from her deck.

She struck wherein the white and also fleecy wavesLooked soft as carded wool,But the devilish rocks, they gored she sideLike the horns of an upset bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,With the poles went by the board;Like a ship of glass, she stove and also sank,Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, top top the bleak sea-beach,A fisherman was standing aghast,To check out the form of a maiden fair,Lashed close come a drifting mast.

The salt sea to be frozen on she breast,The salt tears in she eyes;And he experienced her hair, favor the brown sea-weed,On the billows fall and also rise.

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,In the midnight and the snow!Christ conserve us every from a fatality like this,On the reef of Norman’s Woe!


" data-medium-file="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=640" class="size-full wp-image-14949" src="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=890" alt="Norman"s Woe, between Magnolia and also Gloucester off of Hesperus Road" srcset="https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg 640w, https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=150 150w, https://ipswich.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/hesperus_original.jpg?w=300 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />Norman’s Woe, between Magnolia and Gloucester turn off of Hesperus Road


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destructive of the Watch and also Wait, respectable 24, 1635 - numerous ships and lives were lost in the an excellent Colonial Hurricane, consisting of 21 passengers who had set out indigenous Ipswich on respectable 21, 1635 on a little bark named "Watch and Wait." As lock rounded Cape Ann castle were all of sudden met by the force of the winds.
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destructive of the steam boat Laura Marion, December 23, 1899 - This is the story that the disastrous fate that the Laura Marion and also her crew, brushed up under through one dropped stroke of the sea, bringing suddenly anguish come the understanding of the households who ~ above Christmas eve.
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destructive of the Hesperus, January 6, 1839 - It was the schooner Hesperus,That cruised the wintry sea;And the skipper had taken his small daughtèr,To bear that company.
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destructive of the Falconer, December 17, 1847 - ~ above December 17, 1847 the brig Falconer, loaded v bituminous coal, wrecked in ~ Crane Beach during a fierce winter storm. A dozen of the crew and passengers are hidden in a common grave at the Old north Burying Ground.
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destructive of the Edward S. Eveleth, October 1922 - In October 1922, the sand schooner Edward S. Eveleth rolled over once a wave rushed over she deck and pushed her onto the edge of Steep Hill Beach. Filled through sand, every tide hidden her deeper. Her continues to be were visible for several years. The skeleton that the hull is just off-shore a short distance from the wreck of the Ada K. Damon.
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wreck of the Deposit, December 23, 1839 - Dec. 23, 1839 2 days prior to Christmas a storm recorded the schooner "Deposit" on her passage out of Belfast, Maine. Capt. Cotterall to be lost, and also several of the crew were buried at the Old south Cemetery.
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destructive of the Ada K. Damon - Christmas, 1909 experienced the most heavy storm in countless years. The ship was wrecked throughout the captain"s very first trip because that a fill of sand from the abundant supply ~ above Plum Island.
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The Spectre ship of Salem - ~ above the 4th day after the delivery left port, the sun came out and also in the distance might be watched the same ship sailing effortlessly ago into port directly right into the wind. Together the Noah’s Dove approached, its passengers including the young couple were visible however ghost-like.
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The shipwrecks in ~ Ipswich Bar - The Ipswich Bar has actually a long background of tragic shipwrecks. That is swift currents and shallow waters are specifically dangerous during storms, and also many ships have gone aground. The hull of the Ada K. Damon sit on Steep Hill Beach.
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The Ipswich lighthouse - In 1881, a 45-foot actors iron lighthouse was put up at Crane Beach, instead of an earlier structure. By 1913, the sand had shifted so lot that the lighthouse to be 1,090 feet indigenous the high water mark. Usage of the light was discontinued in 1932 and also in 1939 the coastline Guard floated the entire lighthouse come Edgartown ~ above Martha"s Vineyard.
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The an excellent Colonial Hurricane and the wreck of the angel Gabriel - In august 1635, the 240-ton angel Gabriel sank in Pemaquid just after sailing right into the most intense hurricane in brand-new England history. Amongst the survivors to be members that the Cogswell, Burnham and Andrews families, who cleared up in one area of Ipswich well-known as Chebacco.
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The ”October Gale” that 1841 - In the latter component of September, 1841, to be a long, unbroken order of uncomfortable weather, which culminated in a violent and cold storm of wind, snow and also rain top top the night of October 2, continuing four days.
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