Broken Dreams

Broken Dreams was the title of an exhibition at the art school in Launceston. Bottle stoppers, stone inkwells, tobacco pipes and other sundry personal effects from the State’s maritime disasters of the 19th century were on display. Many of the ships sailed without incident all the way from the U.K., India or Singapore, only to wreck on Tassie's shoreline. This Longfellow poem was posted at the exhibit entrance:

“And ever the fitful
gusts between
A sound came from the land;
It was the sound of the
Trampling surf,
On the rocks and hard
Sea-sand.
The breakers were right
Beneath her bows,
She drifted a dreary wreck,
And a whooping billow
Swept the crew
Like icicles from her deck.”