Exploring Mystic Seaport (II)

…and continuing with our exploration of Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic Connecticut.

This is the 40 foot fishing boat Florence.  She was built along the Mystic River back in 1926.  Engines powered fishing boats from the first decade of the 1900s.  The Florence is a ‘western rig dragger’, a type of fishing boat that drags a conical net across the bottom to gather fish.  In the summers, draggers were used to catch sword fish.  She is the only existing fishing vessel of this type in a museum collection.

The first engine for Florence was a 65 horsepower 6-cylinder model by Lathrop, a company that was also situated on the river.  Florence was acquired by the Museum in 1982.  She had been completely restored to her original configuration, both inside and out.  From what I could determine, she is currently being used to carry students out to Fishers Island Sound to collect marine biology specimens.   

Being a landlubber myself, I tend to think of a blacksmith shop as a place where they make horseshoes, some decorative items and basic tools.  However, I never considered their value as regards ships and smaller vessels.

This “Shipsmith Shop” was built by James Driggs on a wharf in New Bedford Massachusetts.  It is the only remaining facility of its type, specifically focused on the whaling industry that has survived from the 1800s.  Driggs, with his grandson’s help, replaced his larger building with this one in 1885.  The whaling industry was already starting to collapse…

During our visit, the blacksmith/’shipsmith’ appeared to be training someone else in the business.  Products provided for the whaling ships included harpoons, cutting irons, and ships fittings.

The Shipsmith was sold to A.J. Peters ca. 1902.  It continued in business for many years despite the fact that only a handful of whaleships remained.  The shop actually expanded in order to allow the Peters family to expand into more familiar blacksmithing operations.  The shop was still in business until 3 years after the whaling ship, Charles W. Morgan was retired in 1921.

Merrill’s Wharf and Peters “Shipsmithy” in New Bedford were the last outpost of American whaling.  C.E. Peters was probably the last ‘whalecraft’ manufacturer in the USA.  FYI…the whaler John R. Mantra made the last American whaling voyage, departing from New Bedford in 1927. 

 

Note:

·         The most significant invention impacting the success of the whaling trade was the invention of a “Single Fluke Temple Toggle Harpoon”.  It worked much like a toggle bolt works, opening after penetrating the wall or whale, and securing it firmly.  It was invented ca. 1845 by African American blacksmith, Lewis Temple.  His son, Lewis Temple Jr. worked for James Driggs at his shipsmithy. 

The ships chandlery was the ‘general store’, both retail and wholesale, for ships and crew.  Like any good merchant, a successful chandler knew what was needed locally, whether for whaling, shipping, fishing or ship building, and he insured that he could meet those needs.  

Ships provisions were the responsibility of a shipping agent, a person who was hired by the ship owners to manage supplies and equipment.  He also saw to necessary repairs, freight, towage and the hiring of officers and crew members.  Sometimes, the chandler himself served as a shipping agent.

Of course, back in the early days of shipping and whaling, a lack of refrigeration restricted what items could be brought on board for long voyages.  However, chandlers provided salted fish and meat, hardtack, molasses, potatoes, onions and other winter vegetables as well as spices, flour, rum and tobacco.  Sailors bought clothing, boots and blankets.  The ships themselves required navigational instruments, lanterns, buoys, logs, inkstands, needles, beeswax, canvas, marine hardware, paints, oils and caulking compounds.  

The Ship Chandlery at Mystic Seaport displays many objects from the collection that would have been available in such a ships store in the 1800s.  You can see anchor balls, lights, bomb lance guns, hoops, caulking irons, lamps, chests, biscuits/hardtack, rope and ships wheels… Chandleries were truly general stores for the sea!

The Charles W. Morgan is the last remaining ship from an American whaling fleet that sailed for more than 200 years and which numbered more than 2,700 vessels.  The Morgan was built and launched at New Bedford Massachusetts in 1841.  As such, this 177 year old ship is now America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat.  FYI…only “Old Ironsides”, the USS Constitution is older.  In 1966, she was designated as a National Historic Landmark. 

 

The Morgan is 113 feet long and she usually sailed with an international crew of 35 from around the world, over 1,000 in total.  She embarked on 37 whaling voyages, most of them lasting 3 or more years.  Between 1888 and 1904, she called San Francisco her home port.  She was built for durability, not speed, and she roamed all over the world in pursuit of whales.  The Morgan is known as a ‘lucky ship’.  She safely navigated ice fields and flows, survived hostile cannibals, endless storms and several passages around Cape Horn.  After 80 years of whaling, Morgan ended her quest in 1921.

 

The Charles W. Morgan made her 38^th voyage in the summer of 2014.  Following a 5-year restoration project, the Mystic Seaport Museum took her back to sea.  She visited her original home port of New Bedford, as well as Newport Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts and New London Connecticut.  Her mission was to raise awareness of America’s maritime heritage and to focus attention on issues of oceanic conservation.   

This photo of the Charles W. Morgan’s deck shows 2 huge ‘try pots’.  Early in the whaling industry, oil was rendered from blubber in try pots onshore.  Later on, whaling ships frequently featured a ‘trywork’, a brick furnace and a set of pots built into the deck.  This feature allowed whaling ships to stay at sea hunting for whales longer, boiling out their oil as they were harpooned.  This technological advance enabled the success of the Yankee whaling industry.

The deck of the Morgan is 106 feet long and her beam measures 27 feet, 9 inches.  Fully rigged she carries 7,134 feet of sail.  The ship was featured in 3 early films, ‘Miss Petticoats’ (1916), ‘Down to the Sea in Ships’ (1921) and ‘Java Head’ (1923).  When her career ended in 1921, the Morgan was preserved by Whaling Enshrined, Inc. and she was exhibited in South Dartmouth Massachusetts.  In 1941, she came to Mystic Seaport and to this day, she continues to dominate the waterfront here…

Note:

·         Over her 80 years of whaling, the Charles W. Morgan brought back 54,483 barrels of whale oil and 152,934 pounds of whale bone (baleen).

This is the inside of Mystic Seaport’s cooperage.  This was a shop that built round wooden containers (barrels or casks).  These containers were essential at sea and ashore, used to store many products.  Aboard ship, they contained provisions and on fishing and whaling vessels, they contained the catch from the sea. 

A cooper was a regular member of a whaleship’s crew.  He was expected to assemble pre-made casks as needed to hold the whale oil.  Not only was he responsible for insuring the casks were leak-proof, he was also in charge of the accuracy of measure held in them…

Coopers made both ‘tight’ and ‘slack’ casks/barrels.  Tight casks were used for spirits (such as rum), molasses, whale oil, etc.  Slack casks were used for flour, potatoes, apples, dishes or anything that wasn’t liquid that needed to be transported. 

One building at Mystic Seaport contained this exhibit showing the Mystic River area as it appeared ca. 1870.  The 12 foot by 40 foot diorama is scaled to 3/32 of an inch equals 1 foot.  Providing visitors with a look back in history, the display features more than 250 detailed homes, shops, barns and lofts, plus 5 local shipyards. 

This General Store/Grocery Store was originally built in 1850 as a home near Pawcatuck Connecticut.  It was given to the museum in 1954.  The exhibit inside is the result of a retired local merchant who personally stocked the shelves with his own collection of historic items.  Note the youngsters listening to the docent explaining the wares on display. 

This is the Wood Carver’s Shop at Mystic Seaport.  The age of sail was marked and celebrated with ship’s figureheads and other ornate decorative carvings.  All too frequently, these old carvings are all that remains of many vessels from the 1800s.  The Mystic Seaport Ship Carver exhibit portrays the shop of a skilled independent tradesman and his staff.

Carvers such as this artist worked to carve ship’s nameboards, trailboards, figureheads and sternboards for boats.  They also carved shop signs, tobacconists’ figures, ornate fencing and a variety of decorations intended for the home. 

Carvings on a ship were intended to show pride to catch the attention of the public.  Commercial vessels were required to have a name and that was a big part of the carver’s business.  Choosing a name that the shippers would remember with a memorable figurehead was important to ship owners.

Wood carvers and the business of creating carvings for ships was rarely part of the shipbuilder’s business.  In the second half of the 1800s when Mystic had 6 shipyards operating on the river, one local business did most of the carvings for all the shipyards.

FYI…Mystic Seaport’s Wood Carving Shop offers 5 day hands-on workshops teaching the fundamentals of the art.  The next workshop is scheduled for January 2019.

I’d love to have a carving like this depiction of a Tobacco Store Indian.  I have no idea what a new full size carving like this would cost but I did discover a website offering a wide variety of antique wood and metal figures like this.  Prices for wood figurines roughly range from $40,000 to $80,000.  One of the most expensive Indian wood figurines pictured on this site originally cost $175.00 back in 1875!   In the market?  Check out what’s available at http://www.cigarstoreindians.com/.

The family of William Hall Sr., a New York import merchant made their home in this coastal farmhouse in the 1830s.  The home was originally located in Saybrook Connecticut, close to the ferry crossing at the mouth of the Connecticut River.  It was purchased in 1833 from the estate of Samuel Buckingham. 

In 1951, the construction of a new highway bridge across the river meant that this home might be razed.  Mystic Seaport decided to save it and it was shipped to its current location via barge. 

The current exhibit in the home is entitled “Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers”.  It’s an exploration of America’s historic as well as current relationship with whales and whaling.  It’s all about stories about the people, places, ships and whales that impacted and were impacted by whaling since the Charles W. Morgan was built in 1841.

To learn more about this exhibit, you can just go to https://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/voyaging-in-the-wake-of-the-whalers/.

Several buildings contain sea and whale hunting exhibits.  I love quality ship models and these three were among those on display.  I failed to capture the names of the first two ships…the first one is a warship…but the third one is a model of the freighter City of New York.  Many actual ships were named City of New York or New York City.

Some of the displays focused on whale based products and that included these corsets.  Baleen from whales was the equivalent of plastics today.  It is a strong and flexible product.  Baleen, commonly called whalebone, was used as corset stays, in crinoline petticoats, back-scratchers, umbrella handles, false teeth, chess pieces, collar stays, toys, walking stick handles, buggy whips and piano keys.

Whales were primarily hunted for their oil.  Boiled out of the blubber, which can be as much as 11 inches thick, it was widely used in oil lamps and for lubricating machinery.  It was also used in soaps, paint, varnish, textiles and rope.  “Spermaceti” from Sperm Whales was highly valued to create high quality candles and perfumes…

Of course, whales were and still are hunted for their blubber as food…these days mostly by native peoples in the artic.  Even whale tendons were put to use, sometimes as strings on tennis racquets.  Another use was as a key ingredient in margarine and cooking oils.  Whatever remained was used as fertilizer or in animal feed.

Note:   

·         As a material for its many human uses, baleen is usually called whalebone.  However it is not really whalebone.  Baleen is a filter-feeder system in the mouths of baleen whales.  It resembles bristles and it’s made from keratin, the same substance found in human hair and nails.   

Other uses derived from whale hunting include various art forms.  In their down time, sailors would carve scenes on whale teeth.  The result is scrimshaw.  A fine example is pictured above. 

The import of new whales teeth or ivory into the United States is illegal and without provenance showing its legal origin, it will be seized by U.S. Customs.  High quality pieces of antique whales tooth scrimshaw by outstanding craftsmen can cost many thousands of dollars. 

This photo shows whale’s vertebrae from 2 different types of whales.  The size of these pieces is impressive.  Many pieces like this were carved by sailors too…scrimshaw can be created using bone from many animals and even baleen from whales.

 

This is a native Alaskan waterproof parka.  It was sewn together using intestines from sea-mammals.  Items like this were used by native peoples in the western arctic. 

This is another sailor’s art form.  This shell valentine from Charles W. Morgan during the 1800s was created by a ship’s crew member.   It was presented to the museum in 1941 on the Morgan’s 100^th birthday in New Bedford Massachusetts.

At the height of Mystic’s shipbuilding activity in the mid-1800s, the Greenmanville Seventh Day Baptist Church was an important element of the town.  It was built near its current location ca. 1851 largely with the support of local shipbuilding families.  As the shipyards declined in the late 1800s, the congregation shrunk and the church closed in 1904.  After subsequently serving as a private residence and as an apartment building, the church was acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1955. 

In these 2 posts, I’ve only just scratched the surface of the sights and history presented at Mystic Seaport.  The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft and I’ve only featured a fraction of the 60 historic buildings on the grounds.  We didn’t check out all of the special exhibits either and we never got around to visiting the Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard where shipwrights restore and maintain the many ships and watercraft.

The Mystic Seaport Museum is an excellent destination for anyone interested in American history, whaling, and our nation’s seafaring past.  Admission is $28.95 for adults, $26.95 for seniors and $18.95 for youth between 4 and 14 years of age.  Mystic Seaport is open daily from 9 AM until 5 PM.  It is located at 75 Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic Connecticut.  Phone: 860-572-0711.  Website: https://mysticseaport.org.   

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by and sharing our tour with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave