The wreck of the Hesperus - Weather Warnings?

MonkeyDoo

The Wreck of the Hesperus is a famous poem written in the 1800s by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It concerns a sailing ship that sails into foul weather despite the warnings of an old sailor.

Is their any scientific basis to the warnings the old sailor gives?

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!"

Also the smoke from the Captains pipe does the change in wind direction indicate the passing of a cold front? The location is near Boston in December.

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.

Just wondering how the poet's and old sailor's weather knowledge would stand up to today's meteorology?

---

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.

maquiladora

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
And to-night no moon we see!"

The first part sounds like a halo around the moon, caused by ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds ahead of a possible frontal system.
The second part refers to a change to overcast conditions with the moon no longer visible due to heavy cloud.

MonkeyDoo

maquiladora wrote: »

The first part sounds like a halo around the moon, caused by ice crystals in cirrostratus clouds ahead of a possible frontal system.
The second part refers to a change to overcast conditions with the moon no longer visible due to heavy cloud.

Nice one. Just did a wikipedia on cirrosstratus. Ahead of a warm front is cirrostratus. Would that be consistant with a storm following tho?

The wind shift of the pipe smoke seems to be a backing wind? That would fit in with an approaching warm front?

Are backing and veering winds 20th century terms in meteorology? The reason I ask is the poem says 'veering', but the smoke change seems to indicate a 'backing' wind. Am wondering did the poet mean veering as 'variable' or as in todays meteorolical meaning of a veering wind.