Despair Island is a small island in

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

in Newport County,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

. It is located between Hope Island and

Prudence Island Prudence Island is the third-largest island in Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island and part of the town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, United States. It is located near the geographic center of the bay. It is defined by the United Sta ...

. The island is composed of many outcroppings of rocks used extensively by nesting birds, such as gulls and terns. Despair Island is marked with a buoy because it is hard to see during daylight hours; it is barely visible at high tide, and the pile of rocks are almost impossible to distinguish between land and water at night. In 2010, two people were killed and three injured when their boat ran aground on the island during a nighttime boat ride.
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History

Roger Williams named this and the other islands in

, and a popular Colonial-period song helped children remember their names: Prudence, Patience, Hope, and Despair And little Hog Island, right over there.

References

Islands of Newport County, Rhode Island Islands of Narragansett Bay Nature reserves in Rhode Island Islands of Rhode Island {{RhodeIsland-geo-stub