"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

Question from Greg Zuk: When you exited the Wreck of the Hesperus ride there was a pirate with flashing red eyes. Did he say "You spoiled my kingdom" or something to that effect?

Answer from Russ Berube: It was King Neptune at the end of the Wreck of the Hesperus ride and he said.. " Beware ye who have desecrated my kingdom!"

Hesperus as I remember the ride:

As the Boat (car) entered the ride the people saw a ocean scene with ships. The boat was climbing a small hill as it rocked from side to side. Storm sounds and lightening was now in sight. The boat entered an area where there was a loud thunder and a flash of light. A door ahead opened and the boat went down a hill as if it sank. Now you were under the sea on the bottom of the ocean. Above was a large sea turtle who had legs that were moving (didn't see them moving often). Fish, plants and rocks were all around you. A shark was over head further in the ride. He would move in a circle around a under water mountain (He wasn't moving when I worked there).

In fact we (the trouble spotter). would climb up to the top of the mountain from the inside and get a view of most of the ride. King Neptune was one of the last things you saw before exiting the ride. I don't remember what he said but I know someone on the web site has it right.

One thing we did that we were told not to do was the following: If friends went in the ride we would listen for the thunder as the boat went down the hill. At that point we would turn off the track power and the boat would fly down the hill at a high rate of speed. That gave them a better ride. The problem was if you turned the power off too soon the boat would jump the track as it made the turn at the bottom of the hill.

Richard Krol