A Visit to Mystic Seaport (with pics)

[Subnuts]

Back in May (nobody said I was punctual!) I finally got around to visiting Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT. This place has been variously described as an incredible experience or a tacky tourist trap, depending on who you ask. In my opinion, if you're interested in wooden ships and boats, or America's maritime history, you owe yourself to visit at least once in your lifetime. I spent five hours there, and felt like I could have spent another hour or two if I wasn't suffering from a headache due to the intense sun. Admission price is kind of steep, but I was able to get passes for half-off admission at my library.

Anyway, onto the pictures. I tried to take as many as I could, but my camera's battery wouldn't hold out for my entire visit, and a lot of the indoor exhibits were kind of dark. These pictures probably only present about half of what you can see there.

An anchor outside the entrance. There's another anchor, from a British 74-gun ship, that's twice this size and located deeper in the seaport.


A lighthouse lens. Pretty sophisticated for it's time.


The Gaff schooner Lettie G Howard and the steamboat Sabino. It was pretty early on in the season, and a lot of the boats and ships had much of their yards and rigging in storage or undergoing repair in the shipyard. The steamboat operates several times a day, but apparently rides didn't start for another couple weeks. Oh well!


Next to the shipyard, there was a building that housed the entire keel, stem, and sternpost of a whaling ship built in the 1820s. I couldn't get a good shot of the entire thing, but I managed to get this picture showing the stages of hull planking.


Three shots showing the shipyard "in action." The upper floor contains some interesting exhibits describing the restoration of the Charles W Morgan, the last surviving Yankee whaling ship, and you can watch the shipyard team at work from above. However, It didn't look too busy that day. I think the main focus is on the Morgan at the moment, and they were just sprucing up some masts and yards.






You can also take a peek inside from the bottom floor, but can't go in very far.


The Charles W Morgan has been Mystic Seaport's centerpiece since 1941. She's the last American-built whaling ship in the world, and was lifted out of the water in 2008 to begin a lengthy restoration to sailing condition. When I visited they were in the process of completely re-planking the hull. This is no halfassed restoration - they even removed all of the frames from the forward and after quarter of the ship, fabricated new ones, and had the new one installed in place.


Here's what lifted her out of the water. I took this picture atop a somewhat precarious five-flight wooden staircase you have to walk up to get onboard the Morgan. When they return her to the water, you'll just have to take a brief walk across a gangway.

[Subnuts]

The upper deck of the Morgan. There was a docent on hand to answer questions about pirates from annoying children (okay, he seemed like a smart guy, but the kids just wanted to know about the pirates). Notice the racks for harpoons and lances in the overhead.


The inside of the blubber room, where blubber would be cut up into bible-sized chunks before being boiled in the try-works. I hope the museum staff has done a good job washing away all the whale gore!


My aunt Katie demonstrates the low overhead in the blubber room. My back was hurting after a minute and I had to get out of there!


An unidentified three-masted ship in the harbor. It shows up in Google Earth as well - anybody have idea what ship it is?


A compound steam engine from the tugboat Socony 5, built in 1927. And you thought a U-boat's diesels were big! There were a number of old, large, clunky ship engines from the early 1900s around the shipyard, some of which still ran.


Some shots of the replica Amistad, which has been at Mystic after suffering damage in a storm at sea.







The Freedom Schooner Amistad was actually built at Mystic Seaport in the late 90s. As you can see, the attention to historical detail is amazing.



Another shot of the Lettie G Howard. Check out that bowsprit!

[Sailor Steve]

Nice.

[Subnuts]

The Danish lighthouse tender Gerda III. In 1943, this vessel was used to smuggle 300 Jews from Denmark to Sweden.







The sloop Regina M. A particularly fine looking boat - but the smell of varnish was going to give me brain cancer if I hung around too long.


Another nice-looking boat, the oyster sloop Nellie from 1891.


Inside the lobster shack. Exhibits where a docent was present were a lot more interesting than those that didn't. In this case, I wasn't even sure what I was photographing.


This boat is for Dowly.


The sail training ship Joseph Conrad, built in Denmark in 1882 as the Georg Stage. The first sailing ship I've ever seen upclose and went onboard. Cool, huh?


A jibboom and a bowsprit. Just the way I like it!


The main deck crowded with sightseers. As usual, the ship is half the size you think it is when you're actually onboard it.

[Sailor Steve]

Three hundred??? I hope they made more than one trip.

Someone else posted pictures of Joseph Conrad recently. Nice to see her again, and the other boats are lovely.

[Subnuts]

The two sails on the JC weren't sheeted home, basically turning them into giant weathervanes.


As a training ship, the Conrad's masts were only about 2/3rds the height of a "real" three-masted ship. Still too high for me!


The novelty value of this ship was pretty high for me. I think I took more pictures of it than anything else at the seaport!

(Is it just me, or is that open washport in the lower left corner of this picture just waiting for a small child to crawl through it?)

The Joseph Conrad is half-steel, half wood. In this shot, the masts, hull, bulwarks, forward deckhouse, and pin rails are steel, but everything else is wood.


The Australia started life in 1862 as a blockade runner, before being captured by Union warships. A century later, the seaport deemed her to be too heavily damaged to receive a full restoration, so they removed the masts and most of the planking, and use her as an exhibit on wooden ship construction. You can actually walk around inside the ship - most of the deck beams are thankfully padded for the protection of clumsy visitors!




(Check out those steep ladders, gaps between the frames, and nails sticking out of the planking. Wonder how much they have to bribe OHSA every year?)

The inside of the blacksmith shop. The guy "running" the shop at the moment seemed pretty happy to talk about his tools and creations, and enjoyed hitting metal with heavy objects.


The sort of tool collection men grunted and drooled over in the days before power tools were invented.


None of the docents dress in period clothes, which seems to irk some people in reviews I've read online. They're probably grateful they actually get to do things, instead of standing on corners with fake beards glued on, shouting things like "shiver me timbers!" or "call me Ishmael!" at random intervals.


Why you shouldn't make the blacksmith angry.

[Subnuts]

Inside the printing press.




The cooper at work.


And some of his creations. Okay, I'm sure they weren't all made by the same guy, but they're not made out of foam.


The fishing schooner L.A. Dunton, one of four National Historic Landmarks at the seaport. The pier next to her is actually covered with crushed seashells.


The upper deck actually feels a bit more spacious than the Joseph Conrad's.


A dozen men lived, slept, cooked, and ate here. Cozy!


If you were a millionaire in the early 1900s, you had to have a yacht. Preferably a steam yacht, and beautiful one at that. Enter the Cangarda, the only surviving American steam yacht. My big regret was not being able to go onboard her.


Look at those hull lines and that mahogany deckhouse. Beautiful!


Even the lifeboats and the funnel have fine lines.

[Subnuts]

You can't have an expensive yacht without some delicate scrollwork and a bowsprit.


One more shot of this sexy yacht.


One indoor exhibit features a gallery of clipper ship figureheads. Here's four that I managed to get good shots of.








(This one was more than 10 feet tall!)

Had to go back to the Joseph Conrad to get some more shots. Notice the large sheer of the deck.


The guy in the blue shirt standing on the poop deck was talking a mile a minute the entire time I was onboard. That's okay - I've been to museums where the docents just sit around looking miserable.


And that's the last of my pics. There's a lot more to this place besides pretty boats, but that's what I'm most comfortable with. With some luck, I'll be off to Battleship Cove and the New Bedford Whaling Museum in about three weeks. There Will Be Pics!

[Oberon]

Nice to see a Smithy at work, and I don't blame him for not putting on the traditional gear, you want something as cool as possible when you're working next to a furnace. Although if I were in his position, I don't think I'd have been able to resist going for the traditional apron.
Must be lovely in winter, but a real sod in summer!

Great pics all round, thanks for taking them and posting them.

[Penguin]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing!

Besides the beautiful ships, it is always cool to see people who still stick to traditional craftmanship.

[August]

Sweet pictures! Thanks for posting Sub.

[u crank]

Very interesting pics Subnuts.

Thanks for posting.

[Jimbuna]

Looks like somewhere I would enjoy visiting...thanks for sharing matey

[Subnuts]

Thanks for the kind remarks on my photos, everyone!

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Subnuts

Thanks for the kind remarks on my photos, everyone!

The Mystic Seaport, is that the one with the whaling museum, or am I thinking of the museum on Nantucket?

Great photos subnuts!