Northeastern Connecticut, Lasts and Firsts

For the past few months, we've been traveling in areas with long and proud seafaring traditions. Here in Northeastern Connecticut we visited two of the places, one civilain, and one military, on the forefront of preserving that tradition.

This is what the Mystic Seaport and the Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard are all about. This is a photo of the last wooden hull whaler, the Charles W. Morgan as she entered port for the last time after eighty years of service.
Many of the ships that are restored here are the last of their kind. That makes this, if not the most exciting place here, certainly one of the most vital. They use original drawings, photos, half-hull models, and any other means they can to restore vessels as accurately as possible, even if they have been extensively modified by their previous owners.
Here, they begin at the beginning. These logs awaiting their trip to the sawmill are from several different species of trees. I had no idea how many different kinds of wood were needed to build or restore a large,complex ship.
Here are some salvaged anchors in front of a shed of cants awaiting final shaping.
Here, in the shipyard sawmill, they turn and position the logs by hand to insure that they are sawn to the correct, often unusual, dimensions.
This tilting bandsaw is used for final, often complex, shaping of large dimension stock.

You can see several different types of wood sawn and drying in this shed. Note the odd shaped stumps and branches in the background. These are used to make pieces, the grain of which, conforms to the complex shapes of the ship's hull.

Salvaged but still serviceable masts and spars are stored here.

They even make the rope that is used in vehicle restoration.

Here, the Charles W. Morgan, the Whaler seen in the black and white photograph above, is in drydock being restored.

Here's the keel of the Morgan. Much her wood was sound, but because of a specific type of warping, called hogging, in her hull, caused largely by previous restorations, this restoration will still be a huge, complex job. Completion is projected in 2012.

This is the tryworks of the Morgan. They were fired by the leftover pieces of whale blubber after most of the oil had been rendered out. Fire was always a peril on whalers with the decks often soaked with highly flammable whale oil, and barrels of oil in the hold.

Here are the trying kettles where the blubber was rendered down to oil.

This is the hold where whale oil and spermaceti were stored. Ships would not return to port for up to three years while filling the hold.

The captain's quarters are quite luxurious, especially when compared to the crew quarters.

This is the captain's bed. Underneath are gimbels. When the ship rocks, the bed won't.

The captain even had is own private head. His wife, who often put out to sea with him, probably appreciated it.

This is the L.A. Dunton. She was a fishing schooner. Unlike most of her peers, she never lost a deckhand at sea. She served in this function until 1936 when she was rendered obsolete by gasoline and diesel-powered draggers. When acquired by the shipyard, she had been extensively modified. An engine had been added and the masts considerably shortened. Due to the excellent work of the documentation department, she was restored to her original configuration.

This is the remains of the Alma. She was a Confederate blockade runner until she was caught by the U.S. Navy. She was confiscated and sold at auction. Renamed the Australia by her new owner, she became a freighter. She was bought by the Mystic Seaport with the intention of restorating her, but her deterioration was too severe to make this practical. Instead, she was made into an exhibit to show what a schooner of her type looks like underneah her skin.

This is the Roann. She is a powered dragger of the type that replaced the fishing schooners. Of course, all are now obsolete because of the collapse of the fisheries of the Grand Banks. Recently restored, she is one of the last of her kind.

This sleek boat is a New Haven sharpie. During her working days, she was an oyster tonger. She was held in place by poles while the crewman picked up fresh oysters from naturally occurring beds with a long pair of tongs. They were so fast that their owners often raced them during off days. They too are obsolete since virtually all oysters are now raised in commercial beds.

The boat to the right is the Sabino. She takes passengers on tours of the harbor making her one of the last coal-fired steamers still in operation. The boat to the left is the lighthouse tender Gerda III. Despite her rather ordinary appearance, she has quite a heroic background. During World War II, under the command of the owner's 19 year old daughter, she smuggled more than 300 Jews out of Denmark to neutral Sweden. She was boarded several times by the Nazis, but her secret missions were never discovered.

Not only do they restore boats, they have restored an entire seafarers village. Not all of these structures came from here. Many were purchased from other towns where they were in danger of demolition and moved here. Artisans employed by the Mystic Seaport do everything here from smithing harpoon heads to making nautical clocks.

We left Mystic and went to dinner. While we were there, this long truck went by with a mast on the trailer as if to underline the commitment this community has to sailing ships.

The next day, I went to the Submarine Museum at Groton. There, they have many firsts on display. This is a replica of the Turtle. The keg on her back is filled with gunpowder that she attempted to attach to the hull of a British ship during the Revolutionary War. She was unsuccessful, but she was, nevertheless the first submarine ever used in warfare.

In the foreground is a Japanese mini-sub of the type used, largely unsuccessfully, during World War II. In the background is a minisub used by the U.S. Navy to carry divers into a harbor where they attached limpet mines to ships in port.

The biggest first here, literally as well as figuratively, is the USS Nautilus, the world's first Nuclear Powered submarine. Pen and I have been lifelong landlubbers. The experiences we've had on this leg of our journey have left us with a deep appreciation of our nation's rich maritime heritage.