Transport: Schooner Hesperus

It was the schooner Hesperus, That sailed the wintry sea; . . . Thus, nearly 100 years ago, did Longfellow begin his famed ballad of the wreck of the Hesperus on the reef of Norman’s Woe. Last week, another schooner Hesperus, hailing from Gloucester, a few miles north of Norman’s Woe, was sailing the sea off Cape Cod when

Down came the storm, and smote amain The vessel in its strength; She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed, Then leaped her cable’s length

over a sandbar near North Truro which stove in her hull but did not hold her fast. Rudderless, slowly filling, “she drifted a dreary wreck,” while her crew of 27 fishermen fought to get her to port.

For a day and a night the Hesperus wallowed deeper & deeper. Finally, as “the billows frothed like yeast” over her deck, the sailors gave up the struggle, tumbled into nine dories, headed for the open sea in hope of encountering the fleet at the fishing grounds. Day later they did so, were picked up suffering only from exposure.