Some pictures from Mystic Seaport
Image via Wikipedia
Just got back from our trip to Mystic Seaport. It was a great time despite torrential rain, and we really enjoyed seeing the tall ships and perusing the dank holds; it really gives you a sense of what these whalers and seamen had to go through on their months-years long voyages. There’s a great museum there that explores the ocean’s impact on American history complete with a Civil War era seamen’s uniform, which was an unexpected find, as well as a huge array of other artifacts (not to mention some amazing scrimshaw pieces).
The photos will follow in the next couple posts!
Has anyone been to Mystic Seaport recently? Any interesting exhibits attended?
I recently finished Joan Druett’s Rough Medicine, which explored the experience of the surgeon aboard both British and American whaling ships in the 18th and 19th centuries. She did an excellent job of conveying the conditions aboard, as well as the array of mishaps, dangers, and unexpected foibles that could (and did) often occur with such extended sea voyages. Going aboard the Charles W. Morgan, America’s last remaining whaling ship of its once large fleet, really made the book come alive. The renovations currently underway on the ship’s restoration should be finished sometime in 2012; I look forward to going aboard again when it can actually be called seaworthy again! When it does, it’ll be its first voyage in almost a century. Druett’s book is a great reference work as well, complete with an extensive tabulation of all the contents that could be found in none other than John Woodall’s medicine chest. If you’re unsure, he began the movement to maintain and regulate medicine aboard ships at sea during the Age of Sail with the compilation of his manual called, The Surgeon’s Mate. An invaluable book for all ships with or without a surgeon (as you might imagine, particularly without one).
Pictures to follow!
