Coastal Cultural Experience: Mystic Seaport

Whaling on the Charles W. Morgan
by Elaine Alberts

One of the highlights of our Mystic Seaports tour was exploring the Charles W. Morgan (often referred to as the Morgan). This beautiful whaling vessel was built in 1841 in New Bedford, MA. Whaling vessels were designed to last approximately 20 years, the Morgan just had her 176th birthday. She is the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Morgan went on 37 voyages as a whaling vessel, and was retired in 1921. In 2014, she went on a three-month voyage visiting ports throughout New England.

We were able to explore the three levels of the ship, trying to imagine what life would have been like on a whaling ship. We started on deck, at the top of the mast there was a small perch for a sailor to keep an eye out for whales on the horizon. When a whale was spotted they would call out “Whale ho!” along with the direction and distance to the whale. On deck, there was also a large pulley system to lift large strips of whale blubber called Blanket Pieces over the rail so that they could be lowered into the Blubber room below the deck.

The Blubber room is the largest room on the ship. It comprises almost half the length of the ship. This is where the blubber would begin being processed. The sailors would cut down the Blanket Pieces into 4’ X 6” strips called Horse Pieces. These sections of blubber were brought back onto the deck and cooked down in the Try Pots. The Morgan has two large Try Pots on deck. They would boil down the oil and store it in barrels below the Blubber room. There is an original beam down below with the barrels. The sides of the beam are worn from rubbing against the sides of the barrel. Whaling vessels were factories and they would not return home until they had collected a sufficient amount of oil.

The Charles W. Morgan could hold 90,000 gallons of oil. During her 37 voyages, she was never completely filled. My classmates and I were familiar with whaling and how the sailors would process the oil. It was amazing to see this on an actual whaling vessel. Seeing all the parts of the ship in person really cements all the concepts we have been learning about. This was definitely one of my favorite field trips this semester, I can’t wait to return to Mystic Seaport again.

Mast of CWM:
The mast of the Charles W. Morgan. This is where the sailor would watch for whales and call “Whale ho!” when a whale was spotted.

Try Pots of CWM:
The Try Pots is where the smaller strips of whale blubber would be boils down into oil.

Barrels on CWM:
These barrels sit below deck on the Charles W. Morgan. Once oil is boiled down it is stored below deck for safe keeping.

Image of CWM:
An image hanging in the Mystic Seaport Museum of the Charles W. Morgan on her 38th voyage.

James D. Driggs Shipsmith
by Gregory Paul

One of the most entertaining parts of this trip, for me, was the James D. Driggs Shipsmith. The shipsmith was built in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1885 by Driggs himself. It is the last remaining blacksmith of the old whaling industry that is still operational today. Currently, it serves to make replacement parts for the Morgan, a national historic landmark and the last wooden whaleship in the world.

Blacksmithing has always been a craft that interested me, so I was very excited to learn about the functions of the shop as we walked in. We were happily greeted by one of the smiths, and she immediately began teaching us about the history of the shipsmith. Starting in 1846, Driggs built his first shop by Merrill’s Wharf, partnered with Joseph Dean. This partnership lasted nearly 30 years. After Dean’s retirement, Driggs continued his smithing, and in 1885, relocated and opened a new shop at the wharf. This is the same shop that is now on display at Mystic Seaport which we had the pleasure of entering.

The smith had also gone into the history and development of harpoon technology, as there were several harpoons on display. The whaling industry started with double and single-fluked harpoons that soon proved to be ineffective. To be sure, they could penetrate the flesh of the whales, but the holes they produced were too large for the whalers to stay attached to it. Eventually, as the smith told us, a toggling harpoon was developed to fix this issue. The penetrative power of the harpoon remained, but this time the hook could “toggle” into a horizontal position that would keep the harpoon within the whale’s tissues, allowing the whalers to stay attached to the whale. This harpoon was invented in 1848 by Lewis Temple, Jr., and employee of Driggs & Dean.

Fig. 1 Storefront of the James D. Driggs Shipsmith, featured and functional at Mystic Seaport.

Fig. 2 Example of a toggle harpoon head, invented by Lewis Temple, Jr., apprentice of James D. Driggs

Mystic Seaport
by Michael Cashin

Fig 1. Ornate Asian bed brought back from a trans-Pacific voyage. This voyage also brought a variety of medicinal plants, teas, silks, and lumber. Many of the symbols on the side of the bed had meanings such as: “cloud” meaning wisdom, and “dragon” meaning strength and fertility.

Fig 2. Within the collections of the Mystic Museum we were lucky enough to see a variety of canes related to the maritime world. Many of them were made of different types of wood, while a few were composed of ivory! Most had intricate designs along the stems, filled with gold, mother of pearl, and silver.

Fig 3. Many of the canes that were shown were decorated with a headpiece. The designs of these ranged from horses (pictured here), knots, orbs, triangles, and even an elephant head!

Mystic Seaport: Traveling Back In Time
by Madeleine Keefe

Everyone always says “save the best for last” and in our case, the best trip was definitely saved for last. Our trip to the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut was amazing every second we were there. All semester we have been learning about whaling, but being able to walk through the same quarters at the whalers was unreal. One of my favorite places we visited was the archives of the whaling museum. Most museums only show about 10% of their collection to the public. It was amazing to see everything they have from Megalodon tooth to a Blue Whale fetus to jet skis. It is crazy to think that actually makes up Maritime history. No one would ever think jet skis belong there but it all has shaped the maritime culture.

Another really good experience was being able to go to the very bottom of the Morgan. It was the weirdest feeling being down that low, knowing that you were now under water. It was an amazing experience that is so hard to explain. We never see the underneath of boats, it’s really a mystery to most because we are all so captivated by the sails and the underdeck, but it is really an interesting part of the boat. Walking through this part really puts us in the mind set of these sailors, who spend 100% of their time during the duration of the voyage in these quarters, which can last from a couple months to a couple of years. The longest whaling voyage was 11 years. It is crazy to imagine being in these small rooms for that long.

The entire trip was just amazing. Every part of the day taught us new things about whaling but also we could see in person the aspects of maritime history that we have been learning about in class. It is so amazing to see all of this in person and experience this. I felt like we when back in time when we stepped foot on the Mystic Seaport grounds and I was in awe the entire time.

Figure 1. Megalodon tooth in the archives of the Museum.

This tooth was bigger than the average human hand.

Figure 2. A comparison of the deck of a sailing boat and underneath where the sailors spend half their time.

Mystic Seaport
by Kaitlyn Fenster

Figure 1. Model of the Benjamin F. Packard vessel built at Mystic Seaport by William S. Quincy in 1977. The real Packard, which is no longer afloat today, was built in 1883 and had an impressive size, (244.2 feet long, 43.4 feet wide, and a draft depth of 27.6 feet).

Figure 2. Figurehead of an American Indian, which was at the

bow of the clipper ship Seminole. It was carved by James Campbell

and John N. Colby in the late 19th century. The image of the American

Indian was romanticized and represented the brave personalities of

the Seminoles.

Figure 3. Cloth corset from the late 18^thor early 19^th century (right) compared to a modern corset by Rosa Lee (left). Baleen from Mysticeti whales was a common product of the whaling industry and was often used to make old-fashioned corsets.

Will These Ships Leave You Dazzled?
by Makenzie Conover

A gorgeous day in Mystic Seaport Connecticut, our groggy class climbed out of the vans, greeted by crisp morning air as we prepared to start the long day ahead of us. After running around the square looking at souvenirs and pining for local fudge, we headed over to the Mystic Seaport Museum of America and the Sea to check out the exhibits inside. Upon entering, to the left there was this large black and white patterned painting on the wall. Curious, I made my way over and thought it might be a nice little photo opportunity, not yet understanding the wall’s significance. Unable to steal any of my classmates away from their exhibits, I went to the closest one that taught the museum’s audience about ship dazzling.

Ship dazzling is a brilliant optical illusion. When looking at a boat approaching you or far off in the distance, it is fairly easy to determine the direction that the ship is heading in as well as the ship’s approximate speed. But when looking at a boat that has been dazzled, these boats have been painted with various patterns specific to each boat, sometimes in colors but often in black and white. Broken lines in the design cause the optical illusion that the ship is turned in a different direction than where it is actually headed, or distort the shape of the boat from the onlooker’s eyes. The goal of these designs was to protect and distort vital parts of the ship in case of any threat imposed upon it by confusing anyone looking at the ship from afar to keep any torpedoes or assault weapons from hitting the most vital parts of the ship. Interestingly enough, the exhibit I was learning all of this from had an interactive portion to the exhibit, where you looked through a telescope-like lens and you see many ships crossing your field of view. In the viewed field, a dazzled ship was accompanied by a plain white ship to compare side by side as they were moving, allowing the audience to see the illusion for themselves. As I participated, I noticed that because your eyes naturally linger on the dazzled pattern longer trying to make sense of what you are seeing, it appears to be moving slower than the white ship, even though they are moving at the same speed. In a real-life situation, this would help the dazzled boat move farther away from or closer to another ship at a quicker rate than it would appear.

Figure 1:

HMS Irresistible in 1914 with a parti-colouring pattern.

Source: The Dazzling Zoologist

Figure 2:

HMS Dartmouth in 1915 with a classic camouflage pattern. Patterns on the smokestacks were in different directions to muddle the direction that the ship was actually pointing in.

Source: The Dazzling Zoologist

As far as the work that goes into these painted designs, painters were hired and able to complete these intricate designs, following chalk lines drawn on the boat. These designs were typically painted and complete within a handful of days, and these vessels could be incredibly large. Many of the designs for the ships were created by Griffith Coale along with a team of scientists and designers, whose focus was on the natural camouflage patterns we find in nature, such as zebras. It’s amazing to think that something so simple as breaking or curving lines and combining with alternating colors in our field of vision is capable of enough deception to protect these ships. Sometimes, these patterns were intricate enough to make it confusing as to which end was even the bow or the stern of the ship. These techniques helped fleets in WWI survive attacks and saved many lives as well as vessels. To help further demonstrate what the patterns on these vessels may have looked like, below is a picture of our classmate Emily, who I was able to snap a picture of as we were about to leave the exhibit.

Figure 3:

Our much loved Emily posing with the dazzling wall. She looks a bit farther away from the camera than she truly was, due to the design pattern of the wall.

Image sources:

Murphy, H., and M. Bellamy. 2009. “The Dazzling Zoologist: John Graham Kerr and the Early Development of Ship Camouflage.” NORTHERN MARINER. 19, no. 2: 171-192.

Below deck on the Charles W. Morgan ship
by Joshua Farber

After spending weeks learning about whaling in lectures and at multiple museum visits in Coastal Culture class, we finally got to climb on board an actual whaling ship at the Mystic Seaport. The Charles W. Morgan is a 176 year old vessel and was built in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Over her 80 year career as a whaling ship, she made 37 voyages around the globe which produced countless barrels of whale oil.

By climbing below deck, we were able to see how the sailors lived and worked on board. At the stern of the ship were the captains quarters and dining area, which seemed cramped at first glance, but once compared to the Forecastle at the bow (a dormitory for the 22 seamen on board), it seemed mighty spacious.

Between the captains quarters and the Forecastle was the steerage cabins where the mates slept, as well as the all important blubber room. Here is where whales were cut up and processed before being sent up on deck to be rendered in the tryworks. Once rendered down, the oil would be stored in large wooden barrels and stacked in the blubber room. Up to 90,000 gallons of oil could be stored on board, which would require about 60 whales to be caught. This could take upwards of three years, and despite the long voyage, the blubber room would only be used about 100 days of that time.

Being located next to the blubber room, the Forecastle would not be anyone’s first choice for a sleeping location in modern times. The smell from the processed whales and the constant pounding of waves, combined with the dark, damp, cramped space and poor ventilation all made for a rather dismal setting. Nonetheless, this is where up to 22 men would sleep nightly. Each seaman had a full bunk as well as a small private space for belongings, which was more spacious than other ships, where oftentimes men would have to sleep in a hammock or sometimes would be forced to share beds.

It’s still nowhere I would like to sleep, especially for three years straight. Seeing the dormitory as well as the areas on the ship where whales were processed, combined with other experiences at Mystic, were all an incredibly valuable experience, since it brought to life what we learned in class over the last few months.