Whaling and Rowing on the Mystic
Carla's daughter and grandchildren were excited when they woke up. They wanted to get out and see all that the Mystic Seaport Museum had to offer. Breakfast was simple and quick - cereal.
We decided to head off the the whaling ship, Charles W. Morgan. She is the jewel of the museum. The Morgan is the last wooden, sailing whaler in the world. She was built in 1841 and hunted whales for over 80 years. Five years were spent to bring her up to prime condition for a tour of the US East Coast in 2014. She is a National Historic Landmark and visited by thousands of people each year. We spent the remainder of the morning in viewing the exhibits dedicated to the American whaling industry. We all learned much about the men and ships who sailed to all corners of the Earth seeking to fill their ships with whale oil and baleen which was used to manufacture items which needed flexibility or springiness such as umbrellas, corsets, buggy whips, etc.
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| Charles W. Morgan - American Whaling Ship |
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| At the Wheel - Charles W. Morgan |
Lunch was also simple and quick - sandwiches on Foreign Affair. It was great having the boat docked at the museum. After lunch, we set out to explore the 19th Century coastal village. Two workshops we visited were the cooperage and shipsmith. The cooper explained how barrels and other wooden vessels were made to store liquids. He also demonstrated how the barrel's shape was important for handling and storage. It was also necessary to construct uniform barrels since they were a unit of measure in commerce. We discovered how little we knew about barrels and were astonished to discover how much there was to learn about their construction and use.
Even more fascinating was the shipsmith's shop. Every whaling ship and most merchant ships had a blacksmith/shipsmith aboard to make and repair metal items necessary for properly maintaining the ship. Many of the metal parts used in the restoration efforts at Mystic Seaport are fabricated on site by the museum's blacksmiths/shipsmiths. The boys were amazed at how the smiths could take a rod of iron and hammer it into something useful.
What an adventure! Perfect age for a great memory!!
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