Janice S.C. Petrie's Blog, page 3
December 3, 2019
The Wreck of the Hesperus
I attended a “Fireside Chat” at the Beauport Hotel last night and heard author James Masciarelli (Beyond Beauport) speak. My favorite part of the evening was when Jim spoke of the wreck of the Hesperus.
I became familiar with the Longfellow poem as an adult, but learned about the Wreck of the Hesperus when I was just a kid. It was one of my favorite rides at Pleasure Island in Wakefield, Massachusetts! What I didn’t know is that the wreck of the Hesperus happened during a bad nor’easter off the coast of Gloucester on a reef called “Norman’s Woe.”
If you want to take a walk down memory lane, here are some photos from the “Wreck of the Hesperus” ride at Pleasure Island.
If you’ve never read Longfellow’s poem, here it is:
“WRECK OF THE HESPERUS”It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintery sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,
Her cheeks like the dawn of day,
And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,
That ope in the month of May.
The Skipper he stood beside the helm,
His pipe was in his mouth,
And he watched how the veering flaw did blow
The smoke now West, now South.
Then up and spake an old Sailor,
Had sailed the Spanish Main,
“I pray thee, put into yonder port,
for I fear a hurricane.
“Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!”
The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe,
And a scornful laugh laughed he.
Colder and louder blew the wind,
A gale from the Northeast,
The snow fell hissing in the brine,
And the billows frothed like yeast.
Down came the storm, and smote amain
The vessel in its strength;
The shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,
Then leaped her cable’s length.
“Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,
And do not tremble so;
For I can weather the roughest gale
That ever wind did blow.”
He wrapped her warm in his seaman’s coat
Against the stinging blast;
He cut a rope from a broken spar,
And bound her to the mast.
“O father! I hear the church bells ring,
Oh, say, what may it be?”
“Tis a fog-bell on a rock bound coast!” —
And he steered for the open sea.
“O father! I hear the sound of guns;
Oh, say, what may it be?”
Some ship in distress, that cannot live
In such an angry sea!”
“O father! I see a gleaming light.
Oh say, what may it be?”
But the father answered never a word,
A frozen corpse was he.
Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,
With his face turned to the skies,
The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow
On his fixed and glassy eyes.
Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed
That saved she might be;
And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,
On the Lake of Galilee.
And fast through the midnight dark and drear,
Through the whistling sleet and snow,
Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept
Tow’rds the reef of Norman’s Woe.
And ever the fitful gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the trampling surf,
On the rocks and hard sea-sand.
The breakers were right beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.
She struck where the white and fleecy waves
Looked soft as carded wool,
But the cruel rocks, they gored her side
Like the horns of an angry bull.
Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,
With the masts went by the board;
Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,
Ho! ho! the breakers roared!
At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.
The salt sea was frozen on her breast,
The salt tears in her eyes;
And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,
On the billows fall and rise.
Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman’s Woe!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
November 26, 2019
Sea Festival of Trees – Blue Ocean Event Center in Salisbury
We had another spectacular day at the Sea Festival of Trees this year. We met so many wonderfully fun people, and got to see this year’s crop of creatively decorated sea-themed Christmas trees. The highlight of the event for me was when a little preschooler handed me “Did You Make the Hole in the Shell in the Sea?” and asked me to read the story to her. So much fun!
November 19, 2019
Cotton Candy Lobster Caught in Penobscot Bay!
This gorgeous lobster has been categorized as a rare “cotton candy” lobster. According to National Geographic, one of these pastel pink, baby blue, and periwinkle colored lobsters are found every 4 or 5 years. Why this shell coloration happens is unclear. It could be caused by a genetic mutation, or perhaps, from relying on a low-pigment food source. (photo by David Charns WMTW)
OctoPie – So Creative!
How awesome is this! I’m learning everything I can about the octopus for a new children’s book that will include one, and this pops up on social media. (Pie by James A. Bonaparte)
November 14, 2019
Beauport Hotel Gloucester Speaking Event
Had a blast at the Fireside Chat on last Monday! I met so many interesting people and the staff couldn’t have been more accommodating. If you’d like to hear why I wrote “Bay State Skye,” click on the photo above, and then on the video below and enjoy!
A Sea Star Comic
Sea-Themed Gourds at the Topsfield Fair
Every year I love to showcase the inventive people who turn normal gourds into fabulous sea-themed creations! Click the photo to view the class of 2019.
September 6, 2019
New England Aquarium’s live video – “Schooling” from the Herring Tank
The New England Aquarium does a Facebook live segment the first Friday of every month. This one’s from their herring tank and is about schooling. Did you know there are three different types of groups of fish? Click on this post to check it out!
First Friday Facebook Live Schooling FishEvery month we go live with educators extraordinaire Nick and Taylor. This month, get schooled about schooling fish!
Posted by New England Aquarium on Friday, September 6, 2019
August 8, 2019
Favorite Comment from Steve Connolly Seafood Book Fair
Favorite comment from someone passing by our book display at SCSF in Gloucester last weekend, where the Bay State Skyestory all began: “I read that book. What an ending! Wouldn’t of guessed a girl wrote it!”
My feminist side should have been offended, but a) he called me a girl (I doubt that will ever happen again) and b) he really enjoyed the ending (as much as if a guy had written it.)
Favorite Comment from Steve Connolly Seafood Book Fair
Favorite comment from someone passing by our book display at SCSF in Gloucester last weekend, where the Bay State Skye story all began: “I read that book. What an ending! Wouldn’t of guessed a girl wrote it!”
My feminist side should have been offended, but a) he called me a girl (I doubt that will ever happen again) and b) he really enjoyed the ending (as much as if a guy had written it.)
