Groton [Mystic]

Today was all about exploring Mystic. I started with the Mystic Seaport Museum. Like other seaport museums I have visited, much of the campus is outdoors, including working shipyards, lighthouses and different buildings with exhibits.

The featured exhibit in the main museum building was a group of commissioned works by Alexis Rockman entitled Oceanus . I loved these paintings. Themes of natural history, archeology, adventure, political analysis, and science are deftly woven into a story about the human condition. And the art is just stunning. They are working to make it a traveling exhibition. If it comes to a museum near you, it is not to be missed.

I then ventured outside to explore the rest of the 19 acre campus. It would not have been possible to see everything, so I concentrated on a few exhibits. I toured the old whaling boat, the Charles W. Morgan . This ship is the last of an American whaling fleet that numbered more than 2,700 vessels. Built and launched in 1841, the Morgan is now America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat – only the USS Constitution is older.

Next I toured two connected exhibits, sailor-made - folk art of the sea and figureheads and ship carvings . The folk art comprised a lot of scrim-shaw and carving and also, interestingly, some embroidery. All were activities that sailors did to relax after their work was complete. The figureheads were a collection of actual carvings that had graced the bows of ships. Ship’s figureheads were an important form of public art in the 19th century. A figurehead gave a ship its personality, and each one expressed a unique meaning, imbued with values and reflecting popular culture of the time. The decline of figureheads came with the advent of steam power in the late 19th century, which influenced changes in the design of oceangoing ships. Since steam-powered ships no longer required rigging for sails, ships’ bows no longer provided a natural place for a figurehead to be mounted.

I moved on to the Cooperage . This is a Dutch word that refers to the crafting of round wooden containers. There is a whole thing about whether it is a cask or a barrel, depending both on size and what it was destined to contain. The Cooper was a critical member of the crew of a whaling ship as casks held literally everything, from foodstuffs to whale oil. The Cooper had the responsibility to assemble pre-made casks as they were needed to hold the valuable whale oil, and he was held responsible for leakage as well as accuracy of measure. The materials were loaded as staves - numbered in the order in which they were to be assembled - and hoops. Antonio was working in the shop and explained many of the particulars.

Next I listed the metal-working shop, where Chip was forging a gardening tool. He was working over an open flame and then pounding the softened metal. He also explained about the history of the tools collected and how they were used historically.

I then took a break from the museum and walked into the town of Mystic to pay my respects to Mystic Pizza, the shop that inspired the 1988 movie of the same name , starring a young Julia Roberts and also featuring the first silver screen appearance of an even younger Matt Damon. The pizza was average, but the experience was fun. And yes, I bought the T-shirt. Ultimately the movie was shot in a different location, but A Slice of Heaven is still the touchstone. I also got to watch the drawbridge - formally a bascule bridge - being raised and lowered. The town of Mystic spans the Mystic River and the bridge must be raised to allow mariner traffic to pass. In the summer this happens once an hour on the 40 minute mark. Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream is located just at the end of the bridge on the town side. It was kind of amusing to watch it fill up after everyone watched the show,

I then made my way back to the Museum as I wanted to catch a talk and take a boat ride before calling it a day. I was very glad I made time for the talk as it was extremely interesting. A Danish boat, the Gerda III is on semi-permanent load to the Mystic Seaport Museum from the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, to which it was gifted by the Danish Parliament. This boat, along with many others, was used to smuggle Danish Jews into Sweden after the Germans had invaded Denmark. The operation was engineered by a young captain’s daughter named Henny, who eventually became a full-fledged resistance fighter. A book - Henny and Her Boat - has been written by the man who has worked to preserve the vessel at the Mystic Seaport Museum. An interesting fact is that during the time that close to 8000 Jews vacated Denmark, the authorities catalogued every item in their houses and preserved the residences for their return at the end of the war. This is in stark contract to the looting and theft that usually occurred in such situations.

I capped off the day with a short boat ride on the Mystic River, offered by the Museum.

This is my last night in Connecticut. Tomorrow I drive West to Rhode Island.