The Wreck of the Hesperus

She calls out to her dying father as she hears the surf beating on the shore, then prays to Christ to calm the seas.

The ship crashes onto the reef of Norman's Woe and sinks; the next morning a horrified fisherman finds the daughter's body, still tied to the mast and drifting in the surf.

His inspiration was the great blizzard of 1839, which ravaged the north-east coast of the United States for 12 hours starting January 6, 1839, destroying 20 ships with a loss of 40 lives.

Longfellow probably drew for the specifics on the destruction of the Favorite, a ship from Wiscasset, Maine, on the reef of Norman's Woe off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

All aboard were lost, one a woman, who reportedly floated to shore dead but still tied to the mast.