Mystic Seaport Magazine, Fall/Winter 2011

FALL | WINTER 2011

Charles W. Morgan Celebrating 70 years in Mystic

In Memoriam: Rudolph J. Schaefer III | Two New Exhibits | Mystic River Scale Model turns 50 Tourism Cares Spiffed up the Museum | Kids Win a T-Shirt!

70 YEARS AGO,

THE

MADE A SPLASH.

R

WE'RE CELEBRATING WITH A BANG. You’re invited to the Charles W. Morgan’s 70th Anniversary Party.

In 1941, the historic whaleship Charles W. Morgan arrived at Mystic Seaport. On November 5, we’re throwing her a party — and you and your guests are invited for free. (In fact, admission to Mystic Seaport will be free that day, too.) Make sure you don’t miss all the other ways we’re celebrating, including fireworks the night of October 28!

Saturday, November 5 at Mystic Seaport

October 28 - November 6 in Mystic

70TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY

SPECIAL EVENTS

• • • • •

• • • • •

Free admission to Mystic Seaport all day Restoration tours of the Charles W. Morgan Maritime skills & presentations Live music & chowder Meet witnesses of the Morgan’s arrival

Fireworks display October 28 at 9 p.m.

Mystic Restaurant Week Shopping events Evening concerts Art & photography from 1941

For more information about the 70th Anniversary Party, please contact the Advancement Office at 860.572.5365 or advancement@mysticseaport.org

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FALL / WINTER 2011

CONTENTS

TM

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Mystic Seaport magazine is a publication of Mystic Seaport

President STEPHEN C. WHITE executive vice presidents SUSAN FUNK MARCY WITHINGTON Editor Göran R BUCKHORN editor@mysticseaport.org PRODUCTION Susan HEATH contributors TRUDI BUSEY FRED CALABRETTA REVELL CARR CRAIG EDWARDS ELYSA ENGELMAN Chelle Farrand LEIGH FOUGHT ANDREW GERMAN GLENN GORDINIER RICHARD KING ANNY PAYNE ANDY PRICE Sarah Fisher SpenceR MATTHEW STACKPOLE ROB WHALEN

FA L L / W I N T E R

Design Karen WARD THE DAY PRINTING COMPANY

2011 IN THIS ISSUE

Photography DENNIS MURPHY ANDY PRICE Mary Anne Stets

Seascapes........................................ 4 Advancement News ...................... 5

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On the Cover: ON NOVEMBER 8, 1941, THE WHALESHIP CHARLES W. MORGAN ARRIVED in MYSTIC. IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH SHE IS TOWED THROUGH THE DRAWBRIDGE IN DOWNTOWN MYSTIC.

Morgan arriving in Mystic.................. 12-13 Transforming Mystic Seaport........................ 14-15

VISITOR INFORMATION: 860.572.5315 • 888.973.2767 ADMINISTRATION: 860.572.0711

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MEMBERSHIP: 860.572.5339 PROGRAM RESERVATION: 860.572.5322

Interpretation of Mystic Seaport........................ 16-17 Kids’ Stuff................................ 18 -19 On Books........................................ 20

MUSEUM STORE: 860.572.5385 MARITIME GALLERY: 860.572.5388

ADDRESS: 75 GREENMANVILLE AVE. P.O. BOX 6000 MYSTIC, CT 06355 WWW.MYSTICSEAPORT.ORG

Museum Briefs............................ 7-9 New Exhibit.............................. 10-11

CONTACT US

VOLUNTEER SERVICES: 860.572.5378

In Memoriam.................................... 6

&

Gift Ideas....................................... 21 From the Collections................ 22

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Special Events at Mystic Seaport

S E As c a p es The Charles W. Morgan and Atlantis It was on July 21, 1841 at 10 a.m. that the Charles W. Morgan was launched from the Hillman Brothers Shipyard in New Bedford to join her many “sister” ships in the first great global industry. As whalers took to sea, even in 1841, these sturdy vessels were still charting the seas and discovering previously unknown islands in the Pacific. They were whalers, yes, but they were indeed explorers and risk takers who circumnavigated the globe. On July 21, 2011 at 3 p.m. we celebrated the Charles W. Morgan’s 170th birthday, honored her caregivers over all these years, and reflected upon her current state of restoration in the anticipation of launching her two years hence on her 172nd birthday.

And it was at 6 a.m. on the same day that the current age of exploration came to a (temporary?) end when the space shuttle Atlantis rolled to a stop in Florida. She, too, circumnavigated the globe, albeit far away from the ebb and flow of the tides, but still My stic S e a p o r t subject to gravity and the moon’s influence. As she sat there on Presid ent Step hen C . White the tarmac, she immediately became a proud symbol of a bold age of exploration in much the same way that the Morgan has served, proudly, as a solitary symbol of her age of exploration and the spirit of American enterprise. Though vastly different, the Atlantis and the Morgan are both vehicles which have served to inspire generations of Americans and beyond.

Such icons, if you will, prompt us to ask “what’s next?” We know the answers to what followed the active career of the Charles W. Morgan, and we know it is important that her stories and the stories of her successors be shared with the public in the most meaningful manner possible. The same will be said of Atlantis in the years to come, but we cannot yet answer the question of “what’s next.” We can only hope that exploration, whether it is of space or even the depths of the ocean will continue in order to support mankind and to answer significant questions yet unfulfilled.

This issue of the Mystic Seaport Magazine honors the last 70 years of the Morgan’s great history known as her “Mystic years.” It will not be long before the Mystic years are greater in number than her whaling years, but it will always be those years at sea that will make the Charles W. Morgan an enduring symbol, much like Atlantis and her “ship” mates in space will represent the most recent age of exploration for generations to come.

Stephen C. White President

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SEPTEMBER 25 to Nov 13 —

OCTOBER

8 —

8 —

8-10 —

15 —

15-16 —

20 —

21 —

31 — NOVEMBER

4 —

5 —

5 — 19 to Dec 31 —

25 to Dec 4 —

26 —

26 to — Jan 1, 2012

32nd International Marine Art Exhibition “Neptune’s Orchestra” opens Argia Twilight Cruise Chowder Days Fall Beer Tasting Fall PILOTS Weekend Adventure Series begins Sights & Frights begins Trick-or-Treat Appraisal Day Celebrating the Charles W. Morgan Prince of Whalers Maritime Miniatures

by Maritime Masters Members’ Double Discount Days Lantern Light Tours begins Christmas by the Sea

DECEMBER

10 — Santa Claus is Coming!

18 — Community Carol Sing MARCH 2012

31 — “Treasures from the Collections” opens

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The Museum’s Fall and Winter Schedule 2011-2012 Saturday, October 1 – Sunday, October 30, 2011 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. open daily

Monday, October 31 – Sunday, November 27, 2011 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. open daily

Monday, November 28 – Friday, December 23, 2011 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. open Thursday-Sunday

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, closed Monday, December 26 – Sunday, January 1, 2012 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. open daily

Monday, January 2 – Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Closed

Thursday, February 16 – Sunday, February 26, 2012 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. open daily for February Vacation

Monday, February 27 – Friday, March 30, 2012 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. open Thursday-Sunday

Starting Saturday, March 31, 2012 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. open daily

The Maritime Gallery

follows the Museum’s schedule, but is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The image used in Stephen White’s “Seascapes” is by H. GRAY PARK IV, Dusk on the Marsh 23 1/2 x 68 OIL For more information on this artist, please contact: The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport. 860-572-5388

A D VA N C E M E N T N E W S

Celebrating Charles W. Morgan’s 70 Years in Mystic

Over the past few years, the staff at Mystic Seaport has learned, through hard work and expertise, that it takes many hands to restore the last wooden whaling ship in the world.

It has also become increasingly apparent that, once fully restored, it will likewise take many advocates to raise the funds to sail the Charles W. Morgan in 2014.

Since January 2011, a group of dedicated local volunteers, led by Trustee Searle Field and local real estate professional Melinda Carlisle, have met regularly to create enthusiasm and support for the Morgan project. A diverse group consisting of marina owners, restaurateurs, college professors, and civic leaders have come together to strategize and assist in raising $1.5 million to put the Morgan to sea. They have organized themselves under the designation Sail the MORGAN 2014.

Sail the MORGAN 2014 has created merchandise to celebrate this ambitious under-

taking, including hats, shirts, and decals.

This is to increase awareness for the effort to have the Morgan go to sea again. It is also to bring the community together and rally to celebrate the spirit of American enterprise.The committee’s mission is to honor this guiding spirit by sailing the Morgan and reinforcing lessons of courage, exploration and teamwork for our generation and generations to come.

The Sail the MORGAN 2014 committee is honored to present the 70th Anniversary celebration of the arrival of the Charles W.

Mystic Seaport President Steve White with Ms. Lucie McKinney aboard the schooner Brilliant during her port visit to the Pequot Yacht Club in June.

Lucie’s father, Briggs Cunningham, sailed Brilliant out of Pequot prior to donating her to the Museum in 1953. At Pequot, he would take “junior” sailors out on his schooner, thus starting a tradition of teen sail training aboard the boat that has continued at Mystic Seaport since she arrived at the Museum.

Morgan in Mystic. This celebration from October 28 to November 6 will feature a restaurant week, shopping events, evening concerts, and art and photography exhibits focusing on 1941, the year the Morgan came upriver to the Marine Historical Association, Mystic (which later became known as Mystic Seaport). Additionally, the Museum will offer free admission on Saturday, November 5. This special day will feature tours, demonstrations, and an opportunity to honor those who witnessed the Morgan’s arrival all those years ago.

None of this could be feasible without the tremendous support of the Sail the MORGAN 2014 committee and volunteers. This group stands as a model of how public support can help sustain private institutions, advance common goals and work together to celebrate the shared ideals that have helped shape our nation.

Mystic Seaport is proud of this collective effort. The Museum is deeply grateful to those who have given their time, expertise, and resources to help make the audacious vision of sailing the last wooden whaling ship in the world a triumphant success.

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IN MEMORIAM

Rudolph J. Schaefer III A u g u s t 29, 1930 – J u n e 10, 2011

An Endearing

and

Generous Man

By Stephen C. White

M

ystic Seaport lost a true friend last June with the passing of Rudolph J. Schaefer III. Rudie, as he was known to his friends, was a lifelong supporter of the Museum, and his legacy can be found in virtually every corner of the institution. Whether it was leading the Board of Trustees or cutting wood in the Shipyard as a PILOT, no job was too big or too small to escape his attention and effort.

The Schaefer tradition of service and philanthropy to Mystic Seaport was established

by Rudie’s father, beginning in 1951. Rudie followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Board of Trustees in 1975. He later served as its President and Chairman from 1983 to 1989. Always a leader, he made a special effort to share his knowledge and advice .

“He was a valued friend and adviser to so many of us,” recalled current Board Chairman Richard Vietor. “His enthusiasm and commitment was a source of inspiration to me from the very first day that I met him.”

Rudie’s commitment to the mission of Mystic Seaport knew no bounds. His family’s generosity can be seen in the R.J. Schaefer Building, Schaefer’s Spouter Tavern, the Collections and Research Center Conference Room, and the Maritime Gallery — the latter perhaps his most personal legacy. Rudie had a vision for Mystic Seaport to be an incubator for the best of the next generation of marine artists. By providing a dedicated venue for them to display their work, he helped launch many artists’ careers.

Jeanne Potter, the Maritime Gallery Director, said, “Rudie was a true gentleman of the arts and will be greatly missed by all those he touched with his kindness, generosity, humor, and support through the Maritime Gallery.”

Rudie was abundantly generous with his time and sweat as well. Along with his wife, Jane, Rudie was an active PILOT and spent many weekends over the years tending gardens, shingling roofs, or any other task that needed to be done. His enthusiasm and energy was infectious, and he was well known for his wonderful sense of humor.

“Rudie had that special knack for making everyone feel special and genuinely welcome in the Museum family. When I think of Rudie, I think of fun and generosity. The two go together, and Rudie was a master at reminding us of that in the most elegant, light-hearted way,” said trustee Bill Forster. “While we will miss his physical presence around this campus, his playful spirit will joyfully waft through Mystic Seaport forever.”

The Board and staff of Mystic Seaport offer their condolences to his wife, Jane, and the Schaefer family. Rudie Schaefer embodied the true spirit of Mystic Seaport and the Museum owes a tremendous debt to this special person who was so committed to the mission of preserving America’s maritime past for future generations.

Stephen C. White is President of Mystic Seaport.

Remembering Rudie:

“Rudie was a wonderfully welcoming guy who loved practical jokes and to play the clown. I remember that within minutes of first meeting Jane and Rudie at PILOTS, we were deeply involved in playing a practical joke on Flora Fairchild even though I had just met them.” — Bill Ridgway “On the Mystic Seaport board meeting weekends, Rudie and Jane frequently invited Toni and me to stay with them at their beautiful home in Stonington. After the Friday trustees’ reception and dinner, Rudie and I would stay up for a while, having a drink and thinking up solutions to the various challenges facing the Museum. That these solutions appeared less obvious and simple at the meeting the next morning did not diminish our enjoyment of the conversations.” — Bill Cook

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MUSEUM BRIEFS

Left, At eye level looking east on WestMain Street, you feel as though you are walking through a real town bustling with activity!

Above, Arthur Payne working on a shipyard launch area (south-east side of the river) during the late 1980s.

The Mystic River Scale Model Turning 50 Years — A Portal Through Time

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oused in an unobtrusive, brown-shingled finished models. He stayed at the Museum for a The model shows one building on the grounds of Mystic Seaport while longer to rig the schooner Australia (then is one of the Museum’s hidden treasures. The mile of the Mystic River still in the water) and to repair other models in building, a 19th-century woolen mill replica, was the collections.

Basin as it looked 150 built in 1960 for a miniature collection of ships, In 1986, Dad rejoined Bob Morse – both volboatyards, factories, houses, and shoreline viunteers – to work on completing the Scale Model. years ago, when the gnettes. This twelve-foot-wide by forty-foot-long With great enthusiasm, Dad went back to work shipbuilding industry on Saturday mornings and dedicated himself to Mystic River Scale Model invites visitors to embark on a Gulliver-like voyage. The model shows bringing the Mystic River Scale Model, as it was along the river was in one mile of the Mystic River Basin as it looked then named, “to life”! In late fall, I rejoined him 150 years ago, when the shipbuilding industry there. Over the next few years he recruited and its heyday. along the river was in its heyday. In April, this trained a small group of extremely dedicated historically correct portrayal of bygone days, unique in detail and volunteers who diligently remain on the project. They are: Tim Straw, realistic beauty, celebrated its first 50 years!

Cindy Crabb, Dave Olsson, and Nick Dombrowski; Rob Groves has Museum Curator Edouard Stackpole offered my father, Arthur since joined us. Each member of our crew brings unique talents and abilities to the effort. Over time we have developed a close, Payne, the job of developing the Mystic River Diorama in 1958. cohesive bond through the love for the work that we do together.

Dad was a highly skilled precision model builder, watchmaker, At the end of Dad’s life, the Model was recognized as a “World draftsman-engineer who was energetic and imaginative. He conClass Model,” complete with the fiber-optic lighting he had long sidered this to be a dream-come-true, so we moved from Canada to dreamed of. When he passed away in 2006, he had logged in 5,500 Mystic. During that time, Dad worked with “Jerry” Hoxie, who was hours and more left unrecorded beyond that of his three paid years. a locally known artist, Bob Morse, Gerry Aycrigg and others. They Acknowledging his dedication, the Museum installed a bronze explored the streets of late 1950s Mystic to record topographical plaque in the building in 2008, next to that commemorating H. H. changes and photographed “everything in sight” that remained Kynett, who funded the initial project. from the 1850s through the 1870s era. Searching libraries and Going into the Mystic River Scale Model is like travelling through town records, using old photos, newspaper articles, and maps they a portal of time. It tells a visual story of the history of a place and borrowed from “old timers’ attics,” they recreated a historically the people who lived there long ago. In a 2008 article in Yankee accurate representation of the past scaled down to three-thirtyMagazine, the Mystic River Scale Model was called “The Soul of seconds of an inch to equal one foot. On Saturday mornings my Mystic.” For me, my Dad and old Jerry Hoxie are the Souls of the Dad would often bring me with him to work, and those mornings Mystic River Scale Model. at the Museum have remained special throughout my life.

Anny Payne has volunteered at the Mystic River Scale Model since 1986.

When the funding designated for the project “ran out” in 1961, Dad was heartbroken. During those three years he had created 100 FALL / WINTer 2011

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MUSEUM BRIEFS

Mystic Seaport Spiffed Up by Tourism Cares On May 6, nearly 350 tour and travel professionals from all over the country, as well as from Canada and Peru, joined more than 50 Museum staff and volunteers to donate their time and labor to help beautify the grounds of Mystic Seaport.

Months of planning went into this event and involved staff from almost every department. Everyone made sure that we had enough projects, in both good and bad weather, for a combined crew of 400. Staff served as “zone leaders” and “team leaders,” who worked with and helped direct the Tourism Cares volunteers who were so eager to make a contribution.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-2) kicked off the day by addressing the crowd at 8:15 a.m., after which color-coded teams were deployed to projects from the Collections Research Center to the Museum’s Shipyard.

Among the nearly 60 projects tackled on that

Friday, 30 were paint projects that utilized 135 gallons of paint to freshen up the hull of the Joseph Conrad and more than half a mile of fencing. Hundreds of pounds of oyster shells were spread, as were 50 cubic yards of mulch. A water-based preservative was applied on the hull of the Charles W. Morgan, and volunteers assisted the curatorial department in relocating some of our historic artifacts. In all, the volunteers donated the equivalent of a year’s worth of labor.

This was truly a Mystic-wide event and could not have succeeded without the help of our Community Partners. Area hotels provided nearly 250 room nights for the volunteers at an approximate value of $35,000.

Dattco, Inc. provided transportation to and from the airport as well as shuttle service from the hotels to Thursday evening’s and Friday’s activities. Mystic Aquarium hosted Thursday

evening’s welcome reception; and Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mystic Country & GMVB, and the CT Science Center all stepped up to cosponsor the meals provided throughout the day. Our newest corporate partner, Sherwin Williams, donated all the paint.

This once-in-a-lifetime event was organized by Tourism Cares for America, an innovative nonprofit organization formed in 2005 through a consolidation of the National Tourism Foundation and the Travelers Conservation Foundation. The organization works to preserve the travel experience for future generations, and awards grants to natural, cultural, and historic sites throughout the world. Recognized as the most innovative “give-back” program in the industry, Tourism Cares volunteer projects and Volunteer Day draw thousands of corporate leaders and individuals together to share in the conservation and preservation of treasured cultural and historic sites.

The impact of Tourism Cares for Mystic Seaport is expected to be far-reaching, not only because it improved the vibrancy of the Museum, but also because it will help leverage Mystic Seaport, and the entire Mystic area, as an important national tourism destination vital to Connecticut’s economic growth.

Sarah Fisher Spencer, who is the Group Sales Manager and Locations & Productions Coordinator at Mystic Seaport, brought Tourism Cares for America to the Museum and organized this event.

Love Mystic Seaport? LIKE US ON FACEBOOK The next best thing to visiting Mystic Seaport? Visiting our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mysticseaport. Just like the Museum itself, our Facebook wall informs you of all sorts of things to do, from upcoming events to last-minute, exclusive offers.

When you like us on Facebook, you’ll get Mystic Seaport updates automatically streamed into your news feed.

Our Facebook page also gives you access to exclusive behind-the-scenes photos and videos from events like Chowder Days, our television commercial shoots, and interesting articles. And it’s not one-way communication, either — feel free to post on our wall and share your own Mystic photos, memories or suggestions!

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MUSEUM BRIEFS

Mr. Conrad and his big cat bars at his farm.

Mary Anne Stets

Steady as She Goes..... on Course for 40 Years Mary Anne Stets, who this spring celebrated 40 years at the Museum, nostalgically recalls her first assignment as Mystic Seaport photographer – documenting the floating of the Charles W. Morgan from her sand berth onto the lift dock in the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard in 1973. Mary Anne, now Curator of Photography and Director of Collections Business Development & Intellectual Property, attributes her lengthy tenure to the Museum’s core values: inspiration, knowledge, authenticity, stewardship, and community. Mary Anne jokingly brands herself “a hybrid” because her job involves correlating the best interests of Mystic Seaport with reaching out to the greater community by sharing the Museum’s treasures. She manages and oversees the care of the Museum’s Rosenfeld Collection, Carleton Mitchell Collection, yachting related photography collections, both still and moving images. Additionally, she oversees the photography and audio visual services and production divisions, publications, traveling exhibitions, product and business development, wholesale sales, office services, and directs and coordinates the Museum’s licensing, rights and reproductions, and trademark activities. She says 40 years have not dulled the thrill of holding a Museum artifact in her hands.

Trudi Busey is a volunteer at the Communication Department at Mystic Seaport.

Big Cat Cages for the Morgan In the fall of 2009, the shipwrights at Mystic Seaport began the process of reframing the hull of Charles W. Morgan. Once documentation was finished, ten massive hanging knees and a layer of three-inch pine ceiling planking were removed. In place, the ten knees resemble a line of flying buttresses along the wall of a cathedral. They act as corner brackets and prevent the belly of the ship from racking sideways. Proper refastening of the knees is critical. The 1910-built Carnivora Building at Memphis Zoo. We knew the fasteners were iron of some sort, probably wrought iron, since 1841 was too early for steel rod fastenings.

With the knees removed from the hold, we drove out a few of the cut-off rods, called drifts, and went to visit the Museum’s blacksmith, Bill Scheer. Placing a piece of the old half-cut rod into the forge, heating and peeling it open revealed the fibrous, strand-like layering that is wrought iron. Beyond our desire to be authentic, wrought iron is strong but does not rust away like steel. The quest to find some old ¾" wrought iron was afoot.

Within a month, Bill had found some in Wisconsin but at an exorbitant price. Trying to find hundred-year-old wrought iron led me to the Baltimore Museum of Industry, where Curator Catherine Scott put me in touch with Keith Kitts, a reclamation specialist who roams America’s rust belt to intercept artifacts before they end up on a slow boat to China. His lead brought us to a bonanza of ¾" wrought iron from old zoo cages.

Enter the hero of our story, Jay Conrad, who was the keeper of the tiger cages. In 1994, the Memphis Zoo removed the big cats from its 1910-built Carnivora Building.

This was a large stone fortress surrounded by caged outside pens. The cats’ new home was a 20-acre preserve. Conrad had installed and serviced feed machines in the zoo until no-feed policies became the norm. With the “cat house” converted into a café, Conrad did the only sensible thing: he bought all the old cage panels and moved them to his farm. From the outset, Jay Conrad has been nothing but helpful and generous in supplying us this old wrought iron stock. He’s pleased to see it used in refastening the Morgan’s hanging knees. We are extremely grateful!

Rob Whalen is Project Foreman for the Charles W. Morgan at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport.

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NEW EXHIBIT

E

very human society makes music. Music making is part of who we are, and it plays many roles in the ways we work as individuals and groups. Nowadays, a vast variety of music is available through recording and broadcast technology, but not all that long ago the only way to get music was to make it right there on the spot. Whether or not a song had been written down, and whether or not a singer or fiddler could read musical notation, that music could only be heard by others if someone played or sang it, and that particular performance could only be recaptured in memory.

In the age of sail, sailors from different backgrounds and cultures brought their musical memories and abilities with them aboard ship. Once a vessel had left the dock, whatever music people carried in Opens on their heads and hands formed the basis for October 10, the music made during the passage. Work2011 ing in an occupation in which they were constantly moving from place to place, sailors sometimes encountered musical sounds and traditions far different from the ones they remembered from shore. These encounters often led to exchanges of new musical ideas, instruments, and techniques. Out of 2. their musical memories, their experiences during 4. voyages and their encounters with unfamiliar musical traditions, sailors created distinctive music that reflected their lives, work, and dreams.

Songs that coordinated work aboard a merchant sailing vessel were known by the mid1.

1. Milton J. Burns (1853-1933) posing playing the fiddle, c. 1886. 11984.129.34.

2. FIVE musicians on deck of ocean liner PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 1995. 24.341.77.

3. Photo taken aboard the bark ALICE, probably on a passage between New York and New Zealand, c.

1900. Unidentified man on deck, playing stringed instrument. 1996.113.1.61

3.

6.

6.

5.

19th century as “chanteys.” They often included details of the hardships, pleasures, dangers, and frustrations of life on board a ship. Whalemen’s songs recounted the wonders, terrors, and drudgery of hunting and processing whales for their oil. Fishermen and coasting sailors sang of the danger of shipwreck and the quirks of shipmates and officers. Sailors who went up and down rivers and canals carried a variety of sounds that led to the complex musical culture of America’s heartland, from the blues of Memphis to the musical gumbo of New Orleans. Music smoothed the way in innumerable encounters between mariners and the inhabitants of far-flung ports.

Mystic Seaport houses an extraordinary collection of musical instruments that sailors used at sea as well as historic images of sailors, passengers, and port dwellers playing music and dancing. Many of the Museum’s logbooks and journals recount musical events, and in the collections are recordings and films that bring to life a time when making and hearing world music required traveling around the world.

The exhibit “Neptune’s Orchestra,” which opens on Columbus Day, explores the

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4. photo of three Indian musicians aboard MAGDAPUR. Note on back of photo: “The man on the left is playing a 'banjo.' It was made from old typewriter keys and wire strings.” 195.84.62.

5. photograph of Fort Tilden, NY Coast Guard station dance, November 1, 1944.1984. 129.29. 2007.44.1.39.

6. portrait of Addison Scholfield. 1977.92.2B.

music of the seafarers and river mariners which helped shape America’s rich musical heritage. Museum visitors are given a chance to listen, play, and work to the sounds created by yesterday’s sailors.

Craig Edwards is one of the Museum’s “chantey men,” and has been an advisor for the “Neptune’s Orchestra” exhibit.

See also pages 18-19 for children’s activities: word search, build your own instrument, etc.

NEW EXHIBIT 1929, Edward E. Bradley, Carl C. Cutler, and Dr. Charles K. Stillman created the Marine Historical Association in recognition of America’s maritime heritage, fearing that without their intervention, much of the evidence of that heritage would be lost.

On March 31, 2012, their Association – today's Mystic Seaport – will open a major new exhibition, “Treasures Opens on March 31, from the Collections,” which will dramatically illustrate 2012 their visionary action.

For more than 80 years, Mystic Seaport has developed collections vast in depth and scope and known worldwide for their documentary and research value. Less widely recognized but no less significant are the artistic treasures among the Museum’s extensive holdings. These objects of creative expression – inspired by

Above from left: photograph, New Bedford whaleman Isaac Bliss 1997.90.2; Chinese robe, Manchu Dynasty 1968.646; scrimshaw whale tooth “Battle of Lake Erie” 1941.411 and scrimshaw whale tooth “Battle of Lake Champlain” 1941.412; oil painting “Ship in a Gale”

by James E. Buttersworth 1949.3176; and ditty box 1941.399.

Below: watercolor, “Boston Harbor at Low Tide” by Hendricks Hallett.

1978.10.

the power, mystery, dangers, beauty, solitude, and resources of the sea – merge impressive artistic skill with maritime content to reveal the broad influence of the sea on American life.

Museum visitors will immediately notice something very different about this exhibit. Rather than presenting objects and images based on their connection to unifying stories, themes and ideas, “Treasures from the Collections” will break new ground by presenting objects selected primarily for their artistic and aesthetic merit.

In 2005, Mystic Seaport in association with Yale University Press published a volume entitled America and the Sea: Treasures from the Collections of Mystic Seaport. Generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation helped make this publication possible. Curators with decades of combined experience considered thousands of objects and images in the collections and then selected more than 150 works of art that best expressed the soul and spirit of the American maritime experience. These works take many forms, from striking oil paintings and early photographs to delicately crafted boxes and highly detailed scenes painstakingly etched into whale’s teeth. Other categories

of objects represented include prints, ship models, books and journals, ships plans and figureheads, plus some surprises from other categories.

Paintings in the exhibit will range from majestic ship portraits produced in oil and watercolor to powerful scenes depicting sailing ships tossed like toy boats on storm-churned seas. A select group of photographs, generally included in exhibits as reproductions, will be displayed in their original form, including rare 150-year-old examples in ornate cases with polished brass mattes.

Every object and image in the exhibit is evidence of America’s enduring relationship with the sea. The artists who created these treasures range from formally trained painters and photographers to whalemen and sailors whose creations often depict the world they knew well. Some of the artists are famous while many are unknown.

Together they produced a body of work that reveals a remarkable intellectual, emotional and even spiritual response to the maritime world and to the maritime traditions that lie so deeply embedded in our culture.

Fred Calabretta is Curator of Collections & Oral Historian at Mystic Seaport

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M or g an arrivin g in M y stic

Charles W. Morgan

Arriving in Mystic in November 1941

On

By Matthew Stackpole

November 5, 1941, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the Coast Guard cutter General Greene’s tow line stretched tight as she began to pull the Charles W. Morgan away from the harbor where she had been launched a hundred years earlier. Heroic efforts by local citizens to keep the whaleship in her home port had not been successful. Whaling Enshrined, the organization responsible for the Morgan, had made the difficult decision to ownership to a new steward that they felt would best ensure her future — The Marine Historical Association in Mystic, Connecticut.

Aboard the Morgan, shortly after midnight on November 6, Everett S. Allen, assistant to the editor of The New Bedford Standard Times, wrote: “Riding high on a mackerel sky, the moon sifts through cloud patches over a black sea. The Morgan is a wraith from the past, lifting her full bows on an oily swell and poking her white jib boom toward the Mystic River. […] The ship has come alive again, with a silver ripple under her forefoot and bubbling water swirling about her quarters. […] We are the last crew of the last American-built,

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full-rigged whaleship afloat in the world.

“Waters of three oceans and four seas from Japan to the Arctic have slatted brine over these rails. The treads of hundreds of men, white, yellow, and black have echoed and died, principally in anonymity, on these planks. […] Tragedy and prosperity; loneliness and rejoicing; anxiety and relief have left their touches upon her. […] The night is thick with the past. I am writing on the bare wood mess table in the main cabin starkly conscious of him who sat here through the 100 years in triumph, bitterness, weariness, and hopeful determination.”

The Morgan was not able to make it to Mystic on November 6, as a dredge working near the mouth of the river made it impossible. Instead, perhaps most appropriately, she made port in the old whaling city of New London. On the morning of November 8, a contingent of local Sea Scouts under the supervision of Sea Scout Commissioner Carl D. Langenbacher of Noank joined the ship, with the permission of Marine Historical Association Curator and Secretary Carl Cutler, thus beginning an ongoing involvement with youth sail training that continues to this day at the Museum.

Propelled by the local tug Nelseco, tied up to her port quarter by

Eyewitness accounts Matthew Stackpole has found some eyewitnesses who saw the Charles W. Morgan coming up the Mystic River. Here are some quotes:

With the bascule bridge in the background, Main Street Mystic welcomes and celebrates the Morgan's. arrival on November 8, 1941.

Captain Ellsworth S. Wilcox, piloted by Mystic resident Frank Tatro, and escorted by two Coast Guard Patrol boats, the Morgan finally began her way up the winding Mystic River.

Everett Allen continued: “Shoved by a snorting tug we find knots of people on the banks cheering as we go by. We wave and thank them, knowing the cheering is in no sense for us, but for the remarkable lady, dignified even in bedragglement, a thrilling symbol of some of the best things our people have been on the long trek from 1620 to the 20th century. […] Not even morning (daylight) can rob the Morgan of what really matters about her.”

The crowds grew larger as she approached Mystic’s distinctive bascule drawbridge and more boats joined the escort fleet, while several planes circled above.

Newspaper accounts describe an attempt by a young man to swim from one of the boats and climb aboard the ship, which the crew discouraged him from continuing.

The New London Day reported that, at 12:30 p.m., as the Morgan approached the bridge: “A bell, an alarm, and the siren of the Mystic Hook and Ladder Co.’s apparatus howled and shrieked a welcome in which the juvenile and adult population of Mystic joined.”

Continuing up the river, she came up around Adams Point, site of the old Greenman Shipyard, and made her way to newly installed dolphins near the present Stillman Building. Once the Morgan was tied up there, the motorboat Bear, with Captain Elwell Thomas and Curator Carl Cutler aboard, came along side. William Tripp, the ship’s official captain for this voyage, curator of New Bedford’s Old Dartmouth Whaling Museum, and a member of Whaling Enshrined, came over the bulwarks and down a rope ladder to the Bear. Once aboard, he and Cutler shook hands and Tripp handed the ship’s papers to Cutler; the Morgan now belonged to The Marine Historical Association.

How timely her arrival had been was not understood until 28 days later when the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shocked the nation and the world.

As my father, Edouard Stackpole, who succeeded Cutler as the Museum’s curator in 1953, later wrote: “In the face of this momentous development there comes a conviction that fate, or the gods of the sea that had preserved the Morgan for a century, continued to play a vital part in this venerable ship’s history. Had she not been salvaged these few weeks before, it is probable that, in light of the national emergency, she would have remained in Round Hill and most likely would never have survived the long years of the war — and the waiting for her restoration.”

This voyage was over, but her impact on The Marine Historical Association, Mystic, and her continuing role in our nation’s ability to remember, value, and learn from our maritime history and heritage had just begun.

Bob Lane of Friendship, Maine: “My father was very involved in the Sea Scouts and a good friend of Carl Cutler.

When we heard the ship had stopped in New London, my father asked Mr. Cutler if a group of Sea Scouts could make the final leg from New London up the Mystic River and he said yes. There must have been six or eight of us and a couple of leaders.” About being aboard the Morgan, Lane says: “Here you are, you can see the horizon, the Morgan is floating in 20 fathoms of water and it’s a damn good feeling. We felt kind of sorry for her when she went through the bridge because we knew she wasn’t coming out.” Getting to the bridge in Downtown Mystic: “We couldn’t take her through with the tug alongside – not enough room – so we threw lines on to the bridge and walked her through, and the tug followed and then made up to her again.”

HERMINE DUDDA, Museum employee, Mystic, Conn:

“My twin sister, Ernestine, and I were 10 years old and we asked our Mother if we could go into town to watch the ship come in. Mother said yes, and we went down to the highway bridge to watch. When I saw the ship coming, I thought she was very big, but also that she was a sorry sight. She looked like she needed a lot of work.”

Howard Davis, a former museum shipwright and interpreter who retired in June 2011 after 52 years and 8 months at Mystic Seaport, Noank, Conn: “I was

working at a shipyard on the river and we all stopped work and watched the Morgan go by. Little did I imagine that I would later go to work on and around the Morgan for over 50 years!”

George White, Chairman of the Mystic Seaport International Council, Waterford, Conn: “My grandfather

brought me over and held my hand. When we saw the ship, which was being pushed by a tug, he said to me: ‘Remember this, remember this because it’s very important!’”

Matthew Stackpole, on the left, who is a member of the Charles W. Morgan restoration team, is here seen together with Bob Lane by the Morgan’s wheel.

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T ransformin g M y stic S ea p ort

The Charles W. Morgan and the Transformation of Mystic Seaport

O

By Leigh Fought

n November 8, 1941, a bedraggled wooden whaling vessel was brought up the Mystic River “on the hip” by the tugboat Nelseco.

Passing through the open bascule drawbridge, she was escorted to her final resting place at the Marine Historical Association ground, where she would find new life as the centerpiece of the Association’s museum and help give new life to the village of Mystic.

Today she is a major tourist attraction in Connecticut.

Over the previous three centuries, leading up to the 1940s, Mystic had seen life as a Pequot village, an outlying colonial settlement, a center for shipbuilding, a manufacturing town, and a resort. By the Second World War, retail business for the surrounding communities had become the mainstay of the economy, but starting in the late 19th century, the seasonal The Charles W. Morgan arrival of artists and vacationers, whose numbers tory and, by 1931, had acquired the old Greenman woolen factory escalated with the construction of U.S. Highway 1, had already buildings to display this collection. Meanwhile, as the Mystic Aspointed to new economic possibilities throughout the region. New sociation grew through the Depression decade, another historical England towns found ways to capitalize upon and thereby preserve society in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was struggling to preserve the local beauty and history, and the Marine Historical Association one of the last wooden whaling vessels of the 19th century. Carl was an important part of this trend.

Cutler of the Mystic Association stepped in and, to the relief of New The Marine Historical Association, formed on Christmas Day, Bedford preservationists, saved this valuable, if enormous artifact, 1929, by Edward E. Bradley, Carl C. Cutler, and Charles K. Stillthe Charles W. Morgan. In doing so, the Association undertook the man, took the most ambitious steps toward historic preservation creation of a living history museum. in southern Connecticut. Originally, its members had planned to collect artifacts and documents relating to American maritime his-

The building holding Charles Mallory Sail Loft, William White Rigging Loft and N.G. Fish Ship Chandlery.

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Charles W. Morgan Was built at Jethro and Zachariah Hillman's Shipyard in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1841.

T ransformin g M y stic S ea p ort With the Morgan in place in Mystic, this new sort of museum offered an immersive experience of the past, preserving not only objects, but skills, crafts, and folkways. In fact, the interpreters and preservationists would be included in the living history museum’s resources. As the Maritime Historical Association gradually evolved into Mystic Seaport, also with a strong educational goal, it acquired, moved, preserved, or reconstructed buildings on its grounds to form a suitable backdrop to the Morgan. Also more vessels were obtained. Initially, the Association intended to create an iconic and typical New England seaport town rather than an older version of Mystic itself, or of the Greenman shipbuilding yard on which this reconstruction was located. The legacy of recreating a New England seaport town has led some confused Mystic Seaport visitors to ask, “What was it really like back then?” and posed many interpretive puzzles for museum professionals as methods in living history became more sophisticated. Nonetheless, the original mission allowed curators and interpreters to address a range of topics, regions and eras, and to develop educational partnerships and programs that make Mystic Seaport one of the top living history museums in the country.

Despite the arrival of the Morgan in 1941, that evolution had to wait until the end of Second World War, but the ensuing decades then proved a boon. The interstate highway system, envisioned as key to national security, encouraged Baby Boomers’ parents to take their children on educative vacations, and historic sites like Mystic Seaport, with the Morgan as its centerpiece, were among the most popular destinations. Mystic was fortunate in the placement of I-95, particularly with an exit at Greenmanville Avenue that guided traffic by the Museum entrance. The interstate and exit were also completed in time for another national surge of historic tourism during the 1976 American Bicentennial, bringing in more visitors and leading to greater efforts to preserve the historic character of Mystic.

Community preservation led to gentrification in the 1990s, transforming downtown Mystic into a center of upscale shops and restaurants.

Without a doubt, the Morgan helped generate these changes.

Just as she helped to develop Mystic tourism MYSTIC BANK AND SHIPPING OFFICE and preservation, the Morgan has done her share to combat the widespread economic crises and popular demand for vacation spectacles plaguing both enterprises over the past two decades. She has achieved an iconic status in advertisements not only for Mystic Seaport but for the town and the region. Indeed, the Morgan has become a bit of a star on both large and small screens in the past two decades. Steven Spielberg featured the Morgan in his 1997 film Amistad. The following year, the Museum’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard began building a replica of the schooner Amistad for Amistad America, Inc. She was launched in 2000. Three television documentaries have also featured the Morgan as the whaleship Essex, a haunted site, and a vehicle for fugitive slaves. A long overdue renovation led to a replacement of the Shipyard lift-dock and impressed visitors with the awesome sight of the Morgan out of water. In her 70 years at Mystic, the Morgan has not been the only force of transformation, but she has been central to creating the Mystic of the 21st century.

Fishtown Chapel

The drawings of the Charles W. Morgan and the Museum buildings are by John F. Leavitt, who was an artist, journalist, and yacht broker before coming to Mystic Seaport as shipkeeper for the Charles W. Morgan in 1960.

During 1966-1974, he served as associate curator at the Museum, and in 1973 Leavitt published his book The Charles W. Morgan.

George H. Stone General Store

Leigh Fought, PhD, who worked at Mystic Seaport during the summer 2001 and 20052006, is a professor of history and the author of Mystic, Connecticut: From Pequot Village to Tourist Town (2007), from which this article is adapted.

The village street at Mystic Seaport.

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I nter p retation of M y stic S ea p ort

By Glenn S. Gordinier he Charles W. Morgan has had two careers in her lifetime. The first, as an active whaler, lasted 80 years. The second, that of a museum vessel, has lasted an additional three score and ten. The first career was straightforward in its mission to harvest the bounty of the sea. The mission of the second career has varied over time and place, as it has for other American icons – like the Liberty Bell or the nation’s flag.

When the vessel was preserved outside New Bedford in the 1920s and 1930s, the Morgan’s mission was to keep alive the heritage of that great whaling town. Upon her arrival in Mystic in November 1941, her

The Interpretation of Mystic Seaport and the Charles W. Morgan through the Years

Top, Young “Baby Boomers” were instructed on the patriotic lessons to be learned through Mystic Seaport by viewing a new “indoctrinating film.”

Above from left, During the height of the Cold War Americans were clear in their stand against communist expansion, while a very few went so far as to build shelters against the threat of Armageddon.

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meaning changed and took on a regional “Yankee” character. That, and subsequent changes, had much to do with what scholar David Thelen has called “imagined memory,” with its metaphoric relationships and the elements of a national identity. As professor and museum authority Susan Pearce points out, those memories and their symbolism are selected by a society and change over time. Thus, the lessons to be learned from icons like the Charles W. Morgan are reshaped and evolve.

Early Mystic Seaport’s mission was to “bear witness to the youth of the land of the conditions and the difficulties under which their predecessors labored and developed America.” The whaleship only strengthened that mission, because, as Curator Carl Cutler noted, “We feel that the Morgan, with her cramped primitive quarters and crude equipment, serves to point as perhaps nothing else can to the great inspirational lesson of what our forefathers endured and achieved.”

Those lessons of endurance and achievement found explicit expression during the war years. The tremendous surge of patriotism that accompanied America’s entry

I nter p retation of M y stic S ea p ort For Museum members who might not make a visit, the LOG of Mystic Seaport referenced the Museum’s raison d’etre.

By the mid-1960s interstate highways, automobiles, and the requisite family vacation made historical tourism a growth industry.

into the Second World War was expressed in Museum literature that described support for the Morgan as analogous to support for America’s merchant marine, and by extension, America. One brochure read: “Hardiness, courage, frugality, and endurance were primary requisites for the mariner of those days […] But now the Defense of the Americas calls anew for those same traits of character – and we find ourselves devoting superhuman energies to regaining an adequate merchant marine as well as a two-ocean navy.”

With the conclusion of the Second World War, the United States found itself propelled into an era that brought unprecedented wealth and power. The combination of youthful “baby boomers,” two-car families, increased discretionary spending, the interstate highways, and the requisite family vacation resulted in millions of American families, to paraphrase the singer Dinah Shore, “seeing the USA” and seeking worthy destinations. One such destination was Mystic Seaport and its centerpiece object, the Charles W. Morgan.

However, the years of boom and profit for America were not without their dark side. They also offered America what historian William E. Leuchtenburg called a “Troubled Feast.” The trouble, of course, was the Cold War, and the

global struggle between Communist expansion and America’s commitment to containment.

The global standoff deeply affected people’s perceptions of their own safety and how it could be secured. Red-baiting, Loyalty Probes and McCarthyism evidenced the uncertainties that plagued the nation at mid-century.

More feared yet was the omnipresent threat of nuclear annihilation.

It was during this period that the message of Mystic Seaport embraced a national identity. In Museum literature by the mid-1950s, the adjective “American” had largely supplanted New England references. Although one could say that the seafarer presented

by Mystic Seaport retained his qualities of self-reliance, endurance and courage, his home address had changed. Likewise, the meaning of the Morgan was transformed.

During the early years of the Cold War, the lessons that could be taught through the Charles W. Morgan became associated with the economic and political tenor of America, and its international mission.

Consequently, the whaleship, the centerpiece of the collection, and the lessons it could teach, were defined by the boundaries of the nation’s global commitment. One should not be too critical of the Museum’s enthusiasms. They were pervasive and are evidenced by the words of academics, policy

makers, and other museums of the day. It was, after all, less frightening to stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of global destruction when the lessons of our past were so reassuring. It is not so surprising then that the lessons of the Charles W. Morgan would also be lessons of unity, consensus, and courage.

By 1955, every scout, school kid, and camper who visited Mystic Seaport was escorted into the old Greenmanville Seventh Day Baptist Church on the Museum grounds and shown “the new indoctrinating film”: Mystic Seaport and the Origins of Freedom.

The film concluded by noting: “The bulwarks of the seafaring community are the bulwarks of our American Democracy, the church, the home, school, and the free enterprise system.” The message was both implicit and explicit: there were few more natural places to immerse oneself in the heritage of our democracy than on the decks of the last wooden whaler.

And visitors didn’t need to actually see the film to understand the role hammered out for Mystic Seaport and the Charles W. Morgan. Next to the drive-up ticket booth stood a sign announcing that “Mystic Seaport is dedicated to an understanding of the origins of your American freedom.”

Of course, the interpretation of the whaleship, just like the interpretation of the American experience and its meanings, changed over time. The angst and uncertainty of the post-Vietnam era changed the message of Mystic Seaport and its icon. Nowadays, the Museum offers more interpretation about the day-to-day challenges of life at sea, the makeup of crew, women in the maritime community, and the impact of the Morgan and her sisters on whale stocks. As the catalyst for Mystic Seaport’s rise to prominence as the leader in maritime preservation, the Charles W. Morgan is now often rightly cast in the light of her role as an icon of stewardship. Like the story of the larger nation, the story of the Morgan will continue to evolve along with our changing needs and interests.

Glenn S. Gordinier, Ph.D., is Mystic Seaport’s Robert G. Albion Historian and CoDirector of the Munson Institute.

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: c i s u Sea M From the Morgan

KIDS’ STUFF

Fufu bands. Funny name, important history.

Do you like music? Sing along with your mp3 player? Love going to concerts?

Make music on your own?

Before there were ways to capture sound and play it back or broadcast it, music could only be heard live, while someone nearby was making it. People carried their music in their heads and produced it with their breath and hands. Back then, they were far more likely to sing and play in front of others than now, when we often rely on recordings. When people made music long ago, they imitated and recycled sounds that caught their ear or moved them. Over time, these back-andforth imitations become a musical style or tradition.

Sailors had their own special musical traditions.

The work they did was hard and often dangerous.

They spent weeks or months at a time isolated on a vessel where they had little personal space or free time. These shared experiences gave rise to unique musical styles and instruments.

On the Charles W. Morgan and other American whaling ships, sailors often worked to songs called chanteys that kept everyone working together and focused on the job.

Illustration by Richard King

"Playing" encouraged in our new exhibit.

To learn more about fufu bands, don't miss Mystic Seaport's new "Neptune's Orchestra" exhibit, opening Saturday, October 8. You can make your own box banjo, experiment with handmade musical instruments, and hear our chantey singers perform sailors' songs from around the world! See page 10 for more information about this fun, hands-on exhibit.

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KIDS’ STUFF

to making your own.

During rest times, sailors often relaxed by forming a so-called fufu band.

A sailor with a fiddle, concertina or harmonica would often lead the way, while others made music with what they found at hand: spoons, whalebone, their hands, feet, and voices. Their music often had influences from Africa, the Pacific Islands, America, and Europe. The lyrics sometimes joked or complained about the captain, ship owners or officers.

Illustration by Richard King

You can make your own fufu band at home with your friends and family.

Make instruments from household items, then create tunes and write your own lyrics. Maybe it’s a song about your least-favorite chore or school subject?

Find all the words and we might give you the shirt off our back.

O J N A B D Y G D X W A D P F

H I O M M A O T N C N Y U I K

Y U O H A R M O N I C A D W K

S K P N P Q F U T D L D A A P

Y N R U A Q D R A Y L A H J F

B O A T S T E E R E R V H K Z

P P H Z Y C H C C X E I G W B

P C H A N T E Y O K B T J Y A

W O L O S X T W I O B P M Q D

A X C A P S T A N M U O D V S

U D M T E H B E Z B L E O F I

Z T B D J A S V S A B I P E W

F H Y Y P X Z X B H R W N Z X

S F A V V Z U V J D I K B A O

T T Q M Y T V Z U A O A W H S

Here's a fun way to earn some sea legs — and a chance to win a t-shirt.

Send a copy of the completed word search along with your name, age, address, and t-shirt size to: Kids' Contest, Mystic Seaport Magazine 75 Greenmanville Ave., P.O. Box 6000 Mystic, CT 06355 Entries must be received by Thursday, October 27, 2011.

From all correct entries, three winning entries will be drawn on Saturday, November 5, 2011 — the day Mystic Seaport celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Charles W. Morgan's arrival in Mystic.

BANJO

CHANTEY

HALYARD

BLUBBER

CONCERTINA

HARMONICA

BOATSTEERER

DAVIT

HARPOON

BONES

DECK

MASTHEAD

CAPSTAN

FIDDLE

WHALING FALL / WINTer 2011

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ON BOOKS

ATLANTIC

A lso R ecommended

BY SIMON WINCHESTER (HARPER, 2010, 512 PP.)

Live Yankees by W.H. Bunting

Reviewed by Revell Carr

For anyone who has eagerly awaited a new book

by W.H. Bunting, author of the marvelous Sea Struck (2004), here it is: Live Yankees: The Sewalls and their Ships. Bunting has researched the large archives of the Sewall family, whose “sea struck” members were prominent captains and owners of ships and shipyards in the 1800s and 1900s. What could have been a 500-page, dry and dull biography of the Sewalls and their seafaring business has instead, in the hands of Bunting, turned into a truthful and beautifully written story about the family and those who crossed their path or walked on the decks of their vessels. Mr. Bunting has written another brilliant volume of American seagoing history, entertainingly dotted with eccentric stories and facts.

Whether you enjoy this hefty volume aboard a summer cruise or savor it during long winter nights, your interest in the sea will be enriched by Simon Winchester’s Atlantic — it is a voyage of discovery.

Those of you who have enjoyed his fine books The Professor and the Madman or The Man Who Loved China will find this a departure from those tight narratives. Winchester has taken on the daunting task of writing a biography, not of a fascinating individual, but of an ancient body of water, which the subtitle describes as “… a vast ocean of a million stories.” He has managed the task well, and has wrestled the science, adventure, and history related to the Atlantic into a relatively coherent tale in this single volume. For his structure, Winchester chose the seven ages of man as outlined in Jacques’s monologue “all the world’s a stage” in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The reader is going to find this a bit of a force-fit at times, but it is difficult to think of an alternative. Once into the story, you are swept along, from the creation of the Atlantic; through accounts of maritime cultures, ancient and modern; to a veritable “who’s who” of individuals linked to the Atlantic; with a foray into the myths and mysteries related to this sea; followed by a brief examination of literature, art and music reflecting the Atlantic; pirates and slavers; famous naval engagements; trade and fisheries; and ocean travel culminating with fascinating statistics about transatlantic flight. Naturally, a significant portion at the end focuses on the plight of the Atlantic today: sobering, but with glimmers of hope from, for example, well-managed fisheries in the South Atlantic.

Throughout, Winchester has laced the narrative with personal stories.

Many are his own, but many more are tales of the experiences of others over millennia in the Atlantic. As he can barely touch on these innumerable subjects and people, he whets the appetite but creates frustration since we want to know more. However, the book provides a template for further exploration, and readers can find, in Winchester’s bibliography, the sources to satisfy the appetite.

Readers will be fascinated to learn that the Atlantic is going to disappear.

Winchester relates that Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego will become a suburb of Singapore as the continents once again unite. But, don’t sell your boats quite yet since the prediction is that there will be 170 million boating seasons before the Atlantic ceases to exist as a distinct body of water. Relax and enjoy Atlantic.

Revell Carr began working for Mystic Seaport in 1969, was named curator in 1970 and became director seven years later. In 1988, he also took on the position of president at the Museum. When he retired in 2000, Revell pursued a writing career, and his book All Brave Sailors (2004) met with acclaimed success. He has made seven transatlantic surface crossings, one under square-rigged sail, and has sailed (steamed) above the Arctic Circle and has rounded Cape Horn twice.

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Timmy The Tug

by Ted Hughes (text) & Jim Downer (illustrations)

Timmy the Tug is trying to be helpful in the harbor, but without success. Out at sea, he regains his dignity by saving a beautiful ship in distress. The story Timmy the Tug was illustrated and written in the mid-1950s by two young Londoners, who later found fame in their own fields. Jim Downer, who came up with the idea for the book, became a renowned designer and inventor, and his friend, Ted Hughes, a celebrated poet. After spending decades in a drawer, the manuscript was first published in 2009 in Britain. Downer’s splendid Afterword is for anyone interested in a striving artist’s life in Bloomsbury, London, during the 1950s.

To order these or other books, please call 860.572.5386.

To check available titles, go to www.mysticseaport.org/bookstore Don’t forget your 10% Members’ discount!

Members Double Discount Days Nov. 25-Dec. 4

Gift ideas Robert H.I. Goddard photographs

Joey Goes To Sea by Alan Villiers Not only did Alan Villiers write the marvelous Cruise of the Conrad about the fullrigged ship he bought in 1934, the Joseph Conrad, he also penned the enchanting story about the ship’s cat Joey, in Joey Goes To Sea. Joey is a brave and curious little ginger cat, who has thrilling adventures onboard the Conrad. Among the book’s many charms are the beautiful illustrations by artist Victor Dowling.

Seeds of Discontent by J. Revell Carr

Anyone interested in the visual history of American seafaring will be intrigued by this new collection of vintage photography.

Between 1926 and 1947, Robert H.I. Goddard photographed many of the last coasting schooners on the East Coast, catching them underway, in port, laid up for better times, and abandoned. His views range from New Brunswick to Florida. Of particular note are images of large Crowell & Thurlow schooners laid up at Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and of a variety of schooners unloading at Providence, Rhode Island. Mystic Seaport is pleased to publish this selection of 165 photographs compiled by Bob Goddard’s son, Thomas P.I. Goddard, and granddaughter, Caroline Hazard Goddard. The book is printed in duotone from high-quality digital reproductions to capture the finest details of these images. To augment the photos and reflect Bob Goddard’s aims, schooner captains and historians Douglas K. and Linda J. Lee of the Maine Windjammer Heritage have written interpretive captions to outline each schooner’s history and point out details. An appendix contains three of the articles Bob Goddard wrote about the Anna R. Heidritter, a schooner he photographed several times. Fly Rails and Flying Jibs offers rare and dramatic images of the last coasting schooners on the East Coast. Published in hardcover, Fly Rails and Flying Jibs is priced at $39.95.

Revell Carr shows in his skillful Seeds of Discontent that almost a century before the American Revolution, in 1689, English colonists on the east coast of North America were facing the “redcoats” gun barrel to gun barrel. What might have been a successful rebellion at the end came to resignation to new governance. However, seeds were by then planted to help the founding fathers in their revolt against George III and his rule decades later.

CLASSIC SAILING CALENDAR This stunning 16-month wall calendar for 2012 features 14 classic images from the Rosenfeld Collection at Mystic Seaport. Some of the most memorable moments in the history of sailing are captured in striking black and white photographs that convey all the beauty and excitement of this thrilling sport. Printed using recycled materials, priced at $12.95.

Visit www.Rosenfeldcollection.com to order and view our many other Rosenfeld Collection products, including posters, note cards, and books.

Rosenfeld Fine Art Prints Nowhere else is the power, drama and beauty of wind, sail and sea captured so brilliantly. Comprising nearly one million photographs, the Rosenfeld Collection at Mystic Seaport is the largest single collection of maritime photography in the world. These stunning works of art, caught in time by two generations of the Rosenfeld family, capture the essence of the maritime experience. Fine art decorative prints of these beautiful images are now available. To order please visit www.Rosenfeldcollection.com or call 860.572.5383 x4706.

Making Haste from Babylon

by Nick Bunker

The pilgrims were entrepreneurs, evangelicals, political radicals, and Christian idealists, and in Making Haste from Babylon Nick Bunker tells their vigorous tale. He gives an in-depth account of the project of the Mayflower and the first years of the Plymouth Colony. This is a mustread for anyone interested in the early period of American history.

New Deck Prisms In the days before electricity, light below a vessel’s deck was limited to candles, oil, and kerosene lamps. A clever solution for the light problem was the deck prism. Laid flush into the deck, the prism point drew light down below decks. These new prisms are reproductions created from an original Charles W. Morgan deck prism. The small size prisms are now available in nine colors and may be purchased at www.mysticseaport.org or at the stores at Mystic Seaport, 860.572.5385.

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FROM THE COLLECTIONS T he S t o r y a b o ut

T

he Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library at Mystic Seaport holds an extensive collection of renowned naval architect William Garden’s boat plans. Garden, who looks very relaxed in the photograph here, was constantly designing yachts and work boats.

Bill Garden was born November 5, 1918, in Calgary, Alberta. His family moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1924 and soon relocated to the Montlake District of Seattle. Upon graduation from high school in 1935, Garden enrolled at the Edison Boatbuilding School, then went to work for Andrews Boat Company on nearby Portage Bay. His first major project was construction of the schooner Gleam, which he sailed throughout the San Juan Islands and along the surrounding coastline when time permitted.

In 1940, he formed a partnership with Dave Leclercq at a mill site on Portage Bay. They built five sailing yachts before closing shop in 1942 to build boats for the war effort. At the age of 24, with 51 boats designed (mainly work boats and fishing boats), Bill was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to a ship repair facility in the Aleutians. As he described it: “I was

a P icture b y A ndY P rice

The Boat Plans of one of the Country’s Leading Naval Architects

the only man in the Army employed in what I liked doing.” Following discharge in 1946, he returned to Seattle and spent time putting Gleam back into commission and designing halibut boats, trollers and the 30-foot cutter Bull Frog. That summer, he and his longtime friend, John Adams, took Gleam on a lengthy cruise to the north British Columbia coast (a later cruise was documented in the April 1951 issue of Yachting, “Beachcombing the Goose Islands”). In the fall of 1947, he was licensed as a naval architect and took on additional design work on fishing boats, yachts, and, when time allowed, Rain Bird, which replaced Gleam as his boat of choice.

In 1951, Bill moved his office to the Pacific Fishing & Trading Co. building on the ship canal in Ballard, and then in 1954, he moved to Maritime Shipyards with a participating interest in the yard. Bill and naval architect Phil Brinck worked together on projects through the mid-1950s, and in 1956 Brinton Sprague, a mechanical engineer and Bill’s good friend and mentor, joined them. A 1957 article in Marine Digest detailed 62 boats in construction valued at nearly $2 million. In 1959, Bill moved to a new building above Lockhaven Marina overlooking the locks and ship canal traffic. For a time he gave serious thought to relocating to New Zealand as an ideal location to raise a family, but in 1968 he chose Victoria, B.C., as an interim home while he completed current projects. Soon after, he purchased a nearby island, where he set up a design office and later shops and his home. He remained there until he died in April 2011. His final projects primarily involved yacht designs, the largest boat being 231-feet in length.

Andy Price is a production assistant and photographer at Mystic Seaport.

The Daniel S. Gregory Ships Plans Library at Mystic Seaport holds over 100,000 naval architectural drawings, the scope from 1827 to 2004.

The entire collection of ships plans and manuscripts can be found at: www.mysticseaport.org/shipsplans

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| Mystic Seaport Magazine |

FALL / WINTER 2011

OWN A

PLANK R AND BE PART OF

HISTORY Put your name down for a piece of the Charles W. Morgan — and help her take to the seas again.

In 2014, once she’s restored, the Morgan, the world’s sole surviving whaleship, will make her first voyage in over 90 years. And you can be part of it — by becoming a plank holder in this nationally important restoration. You won’t just have your name linked to a significant moment in maritime history. You’ll also receive an authentic locust trunnel mounted on a locust plank with a brass plaque commemorating your support. And your name will be added to our Donor Honor Roll.

Please call 860.572.5365 to reserve your plank.

Or email matthew.stackpole@mysticseaport.org

This unique opportunity to support the Charles W. Morgan’s historic 38th Voyage is available with a gift of $5,000 to our restoration efforts. To learn more about the Charles W. Morgan, visit www.mysticseaport.org/charleswmorgan FALL / WINTer 2011

| Mystic Seaport Magazine | 23

FALL | WINTER 2011

75 Greenmanville Avenue PO Box 6000 Mystic, CT 06355-0990 Dated Material Do not hold

Special Benefit for the Charles W. Morgan Restoration

Script by George C. White with Jordon Pecile

A dramatic telling of whales and whaling and the world’s last wooden whaleship Charles W. Morgan with Jane Alexander JoE Grifasi

Brian Dennehy

Linda Hart

live world premiere performance

limited reserved seating. advance tickets at $125, $250, $500 (Tickets are partly tax deductible)

for more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.mysticseaport.org/princeofwhalers or call 860.572.5322

R e s e r v e

Image: Wendell Minor

Saturday Evening, November 5, 2011 at Mystic Seaport

Y o u r

T i c k e t s

N o w !