Norman's Woe

Norman's Woe is a rock reef on Cape Ann in Gloucester, Massachusetts, about 500 feet offshore.

It has been the site of a number of ship wrecks including the “Rebecca Ann” in March, 1823 during a snowstorm. Another was the wreck of the schooner “Favorite” out of Wiscasset, Maine, in December 1839.

In fiction, it is the site of "The Wreck of the Hesperus", a narrative poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[1]

Its maximum elevation is 23 feet (7 meters), but much of the reef is awash at high tide, and this may have contributed to the number of wrecks attributed to it. A bell buoy is placed about 1000 feet ESE of the rock.

Coordinates: 42°34′35″N 70°41′58″W / 42.57639°N 70.69944°W / 42.57639; -70.69944^[2]

References