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God’s love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic, his purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. 

Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks. 

Psalm 36:5-6 (The Message)

Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me [God’s wisdom], awake and ready for me each morning.

Proverbs 8:34 (The Message)

Mystic Seaport

Mystic, Connecticut

Part 4

Friday, September 18

 We continued our interesting walk into the past.

Burrows House

Welcome to the home of storekeeper Seth Winthrop Burrows and his milliner wife, Jane.  (Milliner: somebody who designs, makes, or sells women’s hats.) 

 Mrs. Burrows ran a household and contributed to the family’s stretched finances. 

  Mystic in the 1870s was a well-established, hard-working coastal community bustling with civic, church, and social activities, but a national recession and steady decline in wooden shipbuilding had hit local families and businesses.

 A few more steps took us to Mystic Print Shop

 Because my occupation involves layout and design, printing, and mailing newsletters for the TFC staff, I found this shop quite interesting.

 We’ve come a long way from rolling ink.

 Although the result was pretty good.

 The hoop maker specialized in the manufacture of wooden mast hoops of assorted sizes which held the sail to the mast on fore-and-aft rigged vessels. The equipment in this building was used by the Smith family in Canterbury, Connecticut, until well into the 1930s.

 Hoops were only one of the many products that came from their woodworking shop: the Smiths also produced wagons, wheels, clothespins, washboards, stable forks and belaying pins. 

Block Island Fire Engine #1

This Gleason & Baily hand pumped fire engine was manufactured in the 1850s and is a typical “crane neck, piano body fire engine.”

When the fire alarm sounded, four men pulled the engine while other volunteers pulled the hose reels.  The engine was pumped by pushing up and down on the long wooden handles called “brakes.”  Sufficient pressure could be built up inside the dome to force water through two 500-foot hoses and throw an effective steam over 100 feet.

In coastal towns, shipbuilders often used fire engines to pump water into the hulls of vessels awaiting launch.  The water would swell the planking and tighten the seams – and also indicate any major leaks.

This shipsmith shop was built at the head of Merrill’s Wharf (now Homer’s Wharf) in New Bedford, Massachusetts, by James D. Driggs in 1885. It is the only manufactory of ironwork for the whaling industry known to have survived from the nineteenth century.

 Smiths produced whaling harpoons, cutting irons, ship’s fittings, etc.

 On the day we visited, the smith was making hooks from scrap metal. 

 We are on the way to visit the Joseph Conrad training ship – but that story will have to wait until tomorrow night.

Praying that you’ll stand firm, mature and confident in everything God wants you to do.

Colossians 4:12 (The Message)

Mystic Seaport

Mystic, Connecticut

Part 3

Friday, September 18

Tall ships always look so elegant.

The crew of three was teaching two tourists how to raise the sails – or hoist ropes.  I’m not sure, but they were using a kind of chant as they did it.

This artist was oblivious to what was going on around him.

This shed was the object of his attention.

Inside that shed was the Whaleboat Exhibit.

Methinks this would be a dangerous occupation.

A sample of drying fish.

Banking has come a long way.

The banker’s space.

Cooperage:  where wooden barrels are made and repaired.

Barrels played a large part in storing fish, blubber, and other things related to the sea.

I love these old windows.

I love being by the sea.  Tthe sounds and smells are so different from the sounds and smells of my Pennsylvania country surroundings.

I’ll be back tomorrow night with more things from the sea at Mystic.

  Steady my steps with your Word of promise so nothing malign gets the better of me. 

Psalm 119:133 (The Message)

Mystic Seaport

Mystic, Connecticut

Friday, September 18

Part 2

 That’s a large anchor.

 This huge chain surrounds the grassy area around the anchor.

Large anchors and chains make me wonder how some of these old boats stayed afloat.

 This building displayed and explained a lot about how sailors mapped and navigated the oceans.  We did not spend a lot of time here, but the displays would be of great interest to those who are fascinated by maps and ocean navigation.

 This beautiful painting caught my attention.

 Our next stop was North Boat Shed

 Cerwin was fascinated with the old steam engines.

 Coal

 Because I live in a landlocked area, and have very little knowledge of any kind of boat, I found the variety of vessels very interesting.

Tomorrow night – after walking by more flower-lined pathways, I’ll show you a few more interesting things at Mystic. 

When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

James 1:3 (New Living Translation)

Mystic Seaport

Mystic, Connecticut

Friday, September 18

 I was looking forward to our “slow trip” through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine, because the summer has been anything but a “slow trip” for me. 

Cerwin is an “interstate kind of guy” who likes to get from point “a” to point “b” as quickly as possible, so spending most of Friday on interstates (driving from Pennsylvania to Mystic, Connecticut) was just fine with him.  

I enjoyed the scenery and read a few secondhand magazines I purchased at our local Jubilee Store a few weeks ago.

 It was a perfect afternoon to enjoy Mystic Seaport.  The sun was warm and the sea breeze a bit cool.

 We spent three hours walking through the re-created 19th-century seafaring village – and could have easily spent three more hours there.  The entrance fee of twenty-plus dollars for adults gives you a two-day pass.

Our first stop was Buckingham-Hall House where the family of William Hall Sr., a New York import merchant, made their home in the 1830s.

When construction of a new highway bridge across the Connecticut River threatened this structure with demolition in1951, Mystic Seaport agreed to preserve it. The house was shipped to its present location by barge. 

 The kitchen is still the site for daily open-hearth cooking demonstrations, and the kitchen garden in the back is the source for much of the fresh produce.

 This food was removed from the hearth shortly before we arrived.

 She explained a bit about the house and some of the things in the kitchen.

 The rest of the house was a self-guided tour.

 We enjoyed pretty fences and flowers…

 …and walked over leaf-covered, stone-lined walkways – entering some buildings, and just enjoying the exterior of others.

 Each building is numbered, and if open, a sign like this is near the entrance.

 During the heyday of Mystic’s shipbuilding activity in the 1850s and of a generation thereafter, the Greenmanville Seventh-Day Baptist Church was the focus of the town’s considerable Seventh-Day Baptist community.

  The congregation, which was an offshoot of the Greenman brothers’ own home parish in Westerly, Rhode Island, built the church about 1851.  The original site is adjacent to the present main entrance to Mystic Seaport. 

I’ll take you over some pathways again tomorrow night, and show you a few more interesting things in the seaport.