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.

Concord and Hartford, The Other Revolution

We went to Concord and Lexington to see where the American Revolution started. What we had not realized was that a second American Revolution also started here - a literary revolution.

As mentioned in a previous post, this is "The Old Manse" where Rev. William Emerson, the Father of Ralph Waldo Emerson watched the Battle of Concord. It was also home to Nathaniel Hawthorne for a period. To the left of the house, not shown in this photo is a small vegetable garden. The original garden was planted for Hawthorne by Henry David Thoreau.
As we drove along the Concord Turnpike, we passed this house once belonging to Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher and poet. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that he considered Emerson to be the author of America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence".
Emerson once asked his friend Henry David Thoreau if he kept a diary. That conversation was, perhaps, the inspiration for Thoreau's best known work On Walden Pond. This is a reproduction of Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin.
Penny has always been fascinated by intellectual people. Here, she tries to get better acquainted with Thoreau. He seems to be trying to explain some great principle to her.
This is Walden Pond. It's easy to see why Thoreau was so taken by it. Wonder what he would think today. It was full of families swimming and boating.

One of the pillars of the Concord intellectual community was Amos Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May Alcott. He is often called the father of transcendentalism in America. This is his Concord School of Philosophy.

This is the house of the Alcott family. Nathaniel Hawthorne helped them purchase it after the failure of Bronson Alcott's Utopian community "Fruitlands".

If only walls could talk. This is the Wayside. Nathaniel Hawthorne purchased it from Bronson Alcott when the Alcotts moved to Fruitlands. Alcott called the house Hillside. Here, Louisa May Alcott and her sisters lived while she formulated, from their lives, the characters in her best known work Little Women. Other famous residents were Samuel Whitney, Muster Master of the Concord Militia, and John Winthrop, not the governor of Massachusetts, but his great-great-grandson, the scientist, called by some the father of seismology. It was eventually purchased by Daniel and Harriett Lothrop who later donated it to the National Park Service. Harriet Lothrop is better known by her nom-de-plume, Margaret Sidney, author of several children's books including The Five Little Peppers.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery lies just outside of town. The locals will tell you that it was named after Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in New York, inspiration for Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A little research, however indicates that the area had been called Sleepy Hollow at least twenty years prior to its development as a cemetery. One section of the cemetery is known as Author's Ridge. Here on Author's Ridge is the grave of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Not far from Emerson's grave is the Thoreau family plot. Penny commented that Henry David Thoreau would have appreciated the simplicity of his headstone.

Almost directly across the walking path from Thoreau's grave is that of Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is his footstone. His headstone is identical. Note the coins, shells, etc. on his stone.

Also here is the Alcott family plot. This is Louisa May Alcott's grave. Also buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery are Daniel Chester French, sculptor of the Concord Minuteman and several other well known statues, and designer of the Pulitzer Prize gold medal. In addition, to famous authors and artists, Sleepy Hollow is also the final resting place of Ephraim Wales Bull who developed the Concord grape from native grape varieties. Maybe a teacher told us that Concord was a hotbed of intellectualism, but that tidbit didn't stick, so discovering all this history was a nice surprise.

While Mark Twain's work came upon the American literary scene several years later, it was revolutionary in its own right. A few days after our Concord trip, we journeyed to Hartford, Connecticut. This was what we came to see. No, this statue of Samuel Clements, AKA, Mark Twain, is not out of focus. It was made of Legos. Eat your hearts out Brent and Tyler.

This is the Clements home in Hartford. Here, he was at his most productive, penning his best known works. Many considered its flamboyant architecture a poke in the community eye, but Clements loved it. The interior is no less interesting and flamboyant than the exterior, but photographs were not allowed there.

To the right is the carriage house of the Clements family. To the left is that of Harriett Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

This photograph of Harriet Beecher Stowe's house was taken from the Clements' carriageway. Unlike the rich interaction within the Concord authors' community, Stowe, forty years Samuel Clements' senior, was only a friend and neighbor. This community, known as Nook Farm, was, however, a great center of intellectual thought and discussion. This atmosphere undoubtedly contributed to Mark Twain's productivity while he was living here.

Boston, American History

We had been to Boston before, walked the Freedom Trail, and experienced the sights sounds and smells of downtown Boston. I still remember the wonderful smells coming from the little Italian food store not far from the Betsy Ross House. This time, we decided to confine our visits to the historical communities on the outskirts of Boston.

Two places we had on our "must see" list were Lexington and Concord. This is the Buckman Tavern where the Militia gathered to await the arrival of the British Troops.
This is the Munroe Tavern where Solomon Brown reported that he had seen British soldiers marching toward Lexington on his return from Boston. It was also commandeered as headquarters for the British command during the battle, and as a field hospital during and after the battle.
Here, the Lexington Minuteman stands guard over the Battle Green where the first battle of the American Revolution took place. Pen and I have said repeatedly that we wish we could have seen some of the places we've visited before we took our history classes.

One of the people we didn't hear about in our American history classes was Prince Estabrook. This monument, installed in 2008 was overdue. If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you can read the inscription. By the way, if you ever visit Lexington, be sure to stop by Vinny T's for dinner You'll experience good atmosphere, good service, and delicious Italian food.

The Buttrick Mansion was the home of Major John Buttrick who led the Minutemen down to the Old North Bridge. It is on the hill above the bridge.

This is the Old North Bridge over the Concord River. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that "The shot heard around the world" was fired here. His father viewed this shot from his nearby home. The monument in the foreground is where the British stood in the Battle of Concord. Across the bridge is where the Minutemen stood.

The two small crosses mark the graves of the two British soldiers who were killed in this battle. Note the inscription on the stone at the head of the graves. Double click to enlarge the photo.

The "Old Manse" from which Rev. William Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo, watched the Battle of Concord.

This is the Concord Minuteman. This statue was created by Daniel Chester French who also created the Statue of Abraham Lincoln that sits in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. This was one of his favorite works.

This was the birth house, in Braintree Massachusetts, of President John Adams, the second President of the United States and patron of our first political dynasty.

This house was the one that John and Abigail Adams moved into upon their return from England, and in which they both grew old and died. It was also home to John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, and Charles Adams, son of John Quincy and ambassador to England during the Civil War. Charles is credited by many with keeping England from recognizing the Confederacy.

John and Abigail Adams are buried in this Church not far from their home in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Near the Adams House in Quincy is the Adams Library. John Adams books now reside in the Boston Public Library, but John Quincy also had a huge collection in excess of 10,000 volumes.

Since photographs weren't allowed inside the library, I borrowed this one from the National Park Service website. Impressive isn't it? We were able to tour the Adams houses free with our Golden Age pass. It even covered parking fees.