The Marvelous Mystic Maritime Museum

Last week, we visited the Maritime Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. This was an especially good museum mainly because of its set up. It is not just a museum; it is also an active yard where they restore old ships. It is laid out like an old seaport from the age of sail. The maritime village has a few streets with small houses lining the sides. Inside the houses there are the exhibits. Sila was docked conveniently on the wharf in the Mystic Seaport so the museum was only a few steps away. For one and a half days we explored the village and learned a great deal.

Here is a street by the shore, lined with little buildings. The village feel of the museum made me feel immersed in a different time. I felt part of the port in the age of sail, not just observing from the sidelines.

Here is Porter standing in front of the Charles W. Morgan, one of the ships that has been restored. She was a whaling ship but has not been on a whaling voyage in over 93 years. 

The life of the whalers is fascinating. We explored below decks on the Morgan and learned about her voyages. The whalers lived in cramped quarters, as you can see above. They would go for years at sea with awful food rations but whale oil was so valuable that they could make good money after a successful hunt.

These are the bunks for the seamen on board the Morgan. The space seems pretty tight and because this is the fo'c'sle forward of the mast, it was probably uncomfortable in anything but calm seas.

The beautiful and complex rigging on the Morgan.

Every half hour or so, the museum hosts a scheduled activity. Each activity is a demonstration or a talk about something related to a seaport. Above, we see two of the museum staff reassembling a barrel. They had taken it apart to show all the pieces of a barrel and their importance. Listening to and watching this made me appreciate such a simple thing with so much convenience. 

During this activity, a staff member sat in this whale boat and gave a talk about whaling. She showed us important pieces of equipment and explained the steps of the whaling process. I learned a surprising amount from her. The whalers would launch approximately five of these whale boats when a whale was spotted. With six men in each boat, they would row until they where practically on top of their prey. Then the man in the bow, called a boat steerer, would stab a harpoon into the whale. The boat steerer would then clamber to the back of the boat and trade places with the helmsman. The helmsman was typically the captain or an officer so he would get the honor of killing the whale with the killing lance. The oars men would then row the whale back to the ship to be processed. In the background of this picture you can see a ship. This ship is used for training boys to become seamen. It is called the Joseph Conrad. My mom likes the photo because it is a great example of what school on Sila can be like when we are visiting interesting places.

In this photo, the activity called The Dog Watch is in full flow on the Charles W. Morgan. On the old ships, the watches were divided into six four-hour shifts. You can imagine the same group would get the same time of day, every day which would not be fair. The solution is The Dog Watch. The dog watch is the four to eight shift. The thing that makes it special is it is cut in half. If you come on at four you only go to six when the next group takes the watch to eight. The reason for the two Dog Watches is to change what time of day a group is on. The Dog Watches shake up the schedule. The sailors needed the time off watch to sleep and eat so they did not have time to socialize with the other group. During the Dog Watches, the two groups would have time to be together. That time was taken up by singing, music, stories and dancing. Here, we had a fun time listening to the music from the violin and whale bone clackers.

In this activity Porter and I are lining up for with other tourists to pull on this halyard to raise the yard arm up the mast like the old sailors did. Also like the seamen, we sang an awfully off key chant as we pulled.

Here we are heaving on the line. It was easier than it would have been for the sailors because there are more us. The activity was held on the deck of the Joseph Conrad. Barely visible, the Morgan can be seen in the back ground.

In this practical exhibit, Porter is racing boat-like-things to demonstrate the force of the wind on different sails. This exhibit helped my understanding of sails and the idea of lift.

This photo was taken in a printing shop like one in the 18th or 19th centuries. The printer showed how printing was done. Here I am learning about arranging the letters to go under the press.

Now I am inking the pad so it's ready for pressing. Next I will put a page on the pad and slide it under the press. With one sharp pull on a lever the page is pressed and ready.

Porter is uncovering his page after repeating the process. 

In another building is the blacksmith's work shop. Every surface is covered with tools and metal. The black smith would make hoops, harpoon heads, and other things to outfit ships like the Morgan. We talked to the blacksmith and learned how he had hammered out all the parts for the restoration projects on the ships in the Mystic Seaport. It was interesting to see a blacksmith and his workshop as it would have been over a hundred years ago. He told us that he is the last genuine operating ships-smith in the United States. While there are others who demonstrate the craft, he still produces forged metal pieces both for the museum and to be used in movies.

Here he is hammering a red hot bar straight for reuse. In the moments before, he had placed the bar in his forge and pumped on the bellows to get it red hot. After he hammered, he slowly lapped water onto the bar to cool it in a controlled manner. It was interesting and amazing to see the real process an old-fashioned iron smith would undertake.

Here Porter stands in a cooperage, or barrel shop. The cooper, or barrel maker, told us all about casks and their convenience.

Here he is, making a bucket and telling us fun facts about casks. I learned a lot. Barrels are a genius idea. The barrel was designed 4000 years ago and was used in ancient Egypt. The fact that no improvement could be made until card board boxes meant that it is an effective shape. Try and think of one thing that has not changed in over a hundred years, besides the barrel and maybe the wheel. The only things that have evolved in barrels are the type of wood used and the material of the hoops: from wood to metal. Barrels can be rolled or carried. On ships, empty ones take up space, so they can be taken apart and reassembled. The curve along the side allows you to rock it back and forth and turn it. You can stop it rolling with your legs without the heavy cask crunching your toes. The only reason the use of barrels died down was because of card board. Cardboard boxes don't have all the advantages of a barrel but now we have fork lifts and cranes so the advantages are not necessary. I was amazed such a plain object could be so interesting.

Here is Porter in the Chemist's Shop, which is the nineteenth century equivalent of a drug store. Medicines, spices, tonics, paint and other things like that were purchased here. We learned about the store from the nice man behind the counter. Originally, drugs and medicines were pills and powder. They evolved to liquid tonics later on but the tonics tasted horrible. Eventually, they made the tonics taste good. Cocoa Cola, Pepsi Cola, Dr. Pepper and other "health drinks" were made. Here, Porter stands in front of a glass case containing medicinal things.

This photo is of a bowl full of powder that would go into a pill. The drug store culture was different back then. The customer would suggest an ailment or problem and the chemist would set to work. He would look in his recipe book, gather herbs and spices, then grind and mix them together. Then he would just add water and make the dough for the pill. He would divide it up and roll it in his hand to make around twelve pills.

This is me in a 1800's grocery store.

This is a chandlery. A chandlery supplies ships with nautical things like sea lanterns, steering wheels, large ropes and small weapons. This store could sell, for instance, a few harpoons. The ships like the Morgan needed more like three hundred harpoons. They would only get odds and ends from the chandlery and things like harpoons would be custom made. The chandlery would usually supply smaller private vessels and individual seamen. Even today chandleries exist. We buy parts for our boat in modern chandleries, which is why it was so cool to see the old version. 

Here I stand in the Navigational equipment store. Clocks, sextants, spy glasses and jewelry were sold here. 

Here are a few spy glasses. They were not sold in the chandlery because they were more valuable and for special use only; not things any old sailor would purchase. Also, the navigational equipment was probably found in a more formal store for captains, rich collectors, and officers.

Porter in an old fashioned bank.

Upstairs, above the bank is the immigrations office. 

This lighthouse is a replica of another one in Nantucket. In a seaport, lighthouses like this were essential to guide ships into the harbor safely.

This is the sail loft. It was built above the chandlery. Sails and ropes were mended here and readied for an ocean journey.

This is me pretending to steer a fishing vessel. It was used in the nineteenth century to catch specifically cod. The coast had a great abundance of cod that the fishermen used to make large profits. After a while the cod fishery was over fished and driven nearly to extinction.

This was an excellent maritime museum. These thirty photos only capture the beginning of the seaport. The size and amount of interesting information awed me. The village set up made me feel immersed in the world I was learning about. I felt myself take in more than words and illustrations could ever give. Not only was the lay out good but the people were nice, the curation was excellent, and the subjects presented in the museum were intriguing. In short, Mystic Seaport is one of the best maritime museums we have explored. -JackRabbit 

Captain Jack White Beard and Baby Porter the Charming.