The Wreck of the Hesperus is based upon a story that Maine poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard of in 1839. Off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts, near Norman's Reef, 20 bodies washed ashore, along with the wreckage of a two masted schooner, the Hesperus. The story haunted Mr. Longfellow for many days. He wrote a narrative poem, or ballad, about the tragedy, which soon became one of many Longfellow poems to grace the bookshelves of civilized people nationwide. In the poem, Longfellow describes a vessel that has the bad luck to be caught in a storm. The skipper of the ship laughs when he is warned by an old, experienced sailor that signs point to a hurricane. The skipper tells his young daughter, who makes the voyage with her father to keep him company, that she is not to worry.
He is heedless of the impending doom, saying that he has weathered far worse storms than the one that approaches. As a precaution, he ties his daughter to the mast of the ship so she is not swept overboard by large waves or strong winds. Frightened, the daughter asks her father about the many things she sees or hears. Eventually, he does not answer. Like the rest of the crew, her father is dead. Her thoughts turn to Christ, and she prays for her life, but to no avail. The next morning, a fisherman stumbles upon the wreck, and sees the daughter, still tied to the mast and eyes icy cold with death.
The poem is really one of my favorites. It speaks of a time long ago, when schooners sailed the sea, and where there was no equipment to save you from a shipwreck. Nothing to tell you a storm was coming except for your eyes, nothing to warn others, nothing to keep you alive. Longfellow's poem is a classic in every sense of the word, but it is a classic for a time that has somehow evaded us. His romantic words and beautiful phrases speak deeply to the part of the reader that might be termed the soul; a part of us all that longs for the beauty and simplicity of an era long past. It is a chronicle best suited for reading on a stormy winter night, curled up under a blanket, with a flickering candle your only light. It is incredibly difficult to explain why I have such feelings for this poem, but it truly is a piece of art. But as for most of today's readers, the ones who hide out in the closet for fear of being picked on for their passion, or the ones who simply don't like to read, The Wreck of The Hesperus is ill-suited. The language that it often uses is resplendent, but almost obsolete at this point in history.
The words and underlying currents of his work make us think, and unfortunately, that is a task not many of today's “scholars” enjoy. It is also rather distant to us now. In the early 1800s, this poem was probably a piece that touched everyone's heart. But technology has so progressed since that time that it is hard for many to imagine such a predicament as the crew of the Hesperus find themselves in. Many find their thoughts wandering to things that seem more important, more proximal matters, such as last night's soccer game or tomorrow's history test. Though elegant, tasteful, charming, and striking, The Wreck of the Hesperus may find its readers less enthused about it than something more recent, and perhaps less impressive with its style.
The excerpt from The Perfect Storm was mainly about the ominous doom that threatened the crew of the ship Satori, and the foundering rescue efforts to save them. It was a striking account. Quick and easy to read (as long as you could understand the sailor lingo), The Perfect Storm is much more suited towards the average reader of the 21st century. Of course, seeing as it was written less than ten years ago, it does have an advantage on The Wreck of the Hesperus. It is a fast-paced, action-packed read that never penetrated our souls, but exploded into the violent, savage part of today's society. As it described the nightmare these poor people faced, I know that my thoughts, at the very least,
were fast and furious, almost ripping the page in my exhilaration and hope to see them live. A true story, The Perfect Storm blinds us with a frightening account of the trial the Coast Guard and the seafarers faced. It shocks and horrifies, terrorizes and appalls us, and stretches the limits of human patience to eagerly await the news of the crews' rescue, or death. The Perfect Storm is easy to follow, and makes us think, but not half as deeply as the Hesperus does. Though there are those who surely would choose Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's worst work over Sebastian Junger's best, many of today's public would find The Perfect Storm far more appealing.
It is fast and furious, coming quickly to the point, where The Hesperus floats along, pushing and edging the human mind to look beyond what is shown and see into the murky depths of the human character and the nature that caused a disaster that could have been avoided. The Perfect Storm is the space shuttle of shipwreck literature, where The Hesperus finds itself pushed back towards the position of the Wright brothers' first aircraft.
The Hesperus is much more enduring than I suspect The Perfect Storm will ever be, because it was, and is, considered a literary classic written by a literary genius. But I have had the opportunity to read the entire Perfect Storm novel, and find few differences in the basic stories themselves. Both focus on a shipwreck and incredible loss of life that could have been avoided had the captain or crew been less confident and more cautious about their mortality. Still, Junger's book succeeds today as a literary masterpiece because it speaks to the reader in a language that he can easily understand, the modernized slang that Longfellow's elegant language has now become.
