ISLE OF SHOALSTen miles out to sea,these nine
small islands are a maritime treasure
Hop aboard the ferry and visit Star Island
Visitors to the New Hampshire seacoast are often surprised to find a single ferry is their only means of reaching the nine famous Isles of Shoals. But that is part of the magic The ferry stops only at Star Island, as it has for a century. The Oceanic Hotel there is practically unchanged, as is the old Gosport Church, the John Smith monument and the Rev. Tucke obelisk. The rugged scenery itself is as it has been for centuries, long before the first European settlers arrived.
By the turn of the 19th century the original hotel on Appledore nearby was gone, as was the "island poet" Celia Thaxter who made these islands so well known. Tinted photographs on penny postcards were the hottest new technology. These images are from the collection of Sharon Stephan.
The Spaniards' Graves
At the Isles of Shoals
By Celia Thaxter
O sailors, did sweet eyes look after you
The day you sailed away from sunny Spain?
Bright eyes that followed fading ship and crew,
Melting in tender rain?
Did no one dream of that drear night to be,
Wild with the wind, fierce with the stinging snow,
When on yon granite point that frets the sea,
The ship met her death-blow?
Fifty long years ago these sailors died:
(None know how many sleep beneath the waves)
Fourteen gray headstones, rising side by side,
Point out their nameless graves
Lonely, unknown, deserted, but for me,
And the wild birds that flit with mournful cry,
And sadder winds, and voices of the sea
That moans perpetually
Wives, mothers, maidens, wistfully, in vain
Questioned the distance for the yearning sail,
That leaning landward, should have stretched again
White arms wide on the gale
To bring back their beloved. Year by year,
Weary they watched, till youth and beauty passed,
And lustrous eyes grew dim and age drew near
And hope was dead at last.
Still summer broods o'er that delicious land
Rich, fragrant, warm with skies of golden glow:
Live any yet of that forsaken band
Who loved so long ago?
Spanish women, over the far seas
Could I but show you where your dead repose!
Could I send tidings on this northern breeze
That strong and steady blows!
Dear dark-eyed sisters, you remember yet
These you have lost, but you can never know
One stands at their bleak graves whose eyes are wet
With thinking of your woe!
First published in The Atlantic, April 1865 and had appeared in numerous versions, studies and anthologies since.
"Gosport Church Entrance, Star Island
Plaque says church was originally made of timbers from 1685 Spanish shipwreck. Was rebuilt in 1720 and burned by the islanders in 1700, then rebuilt in 1800".
THE KIBOKA Tour
Boat Travels To The ISLES OF SHOALS
