"Call Me Ishmael"

For those unfamiliar with this famous quote, it is the opening line in Herman Melville's classic tale - 'Moby Dick'...  Now - you must be wondering why I'd start a blog post with this quote.  Well - the answer is that I have spent the last couple of weeks in the New England area.  And, while this area is beautiful and picturesque, quaint, and all the many other adjectives you can use to describe it - I can't help but harken back to the days of the whaling merchants.  There are so many things that you see in and around these towns including actual artifacts from the whaling times.

Here's a sculpture of a white whale on display in Nantucket.

This trip into the past began for me when I spent the day at the Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut.  As museums go this one is the best.  You actually feel like you take a step back in time to a town in the whaling days on the New England coast.  The Mystic Village is set up just like a town would have been back in the 1800's.  There is a shop where they make sails for boats,  a shop where they make rope for working the rig on a ship, a shop where they make chain for the ships.  There is a general store, a woodshop,  a pharmacy, a printing shop, a shop with all sorts of navigational equipment including sextants, compasses and chronometers - and a bank with an old vault.  There are actual homes that stand today just as they did hundreds of years ago where the townspeople lived in those days.

These are not just museum relics and artifacts, but actual craftsman are working in these shops just like they would have years ago.  They are keeping these crafts alive and well-preserved.  The Mystic Seaport is also home to the nations only wooden ship building and repair facility.  Not sure who pays for it but they are working on retro-fitting the Mayflower II which is a replica of the actual Mayflower.  Yes the ship the pilgrims came over here on.  2020 is the 400th anniversary of the coming of the Pilgrims to Plymouth Landing and the Mayflower II will be re-built and re-furbished and ready to sail in to Plymouth Harbor for the commemoration and celebration in 2020.

But I digress - back to whaling.  Whaling was a boom industry back in the early 1800's.  Whale oil was used for many things including:  lamp oil, candle making, margarine, and pharmaceuticals.  Baleen is another part of the whale that was highly coveted.  Baleen is like a thin layer of bristle in the whales head and mouth that is used to strain the 'crill' that the whales eat for food.  The baleen was used back then to make some of the finest synthetic textiles for high-end fabrics and clothing - for the rich people..

Men would set sail on a whaling journey and would sometimes be away for up to two years chasing and catching whales.  The ships were designed to actually process the entire whale at sea and take all the whale blubber, boil it, and turn it in to oil and store it in barrels on the ship.  Women stayed behind and tended to their homes and children and minded the businesses at home while the men were at sea.  One story I heard was there was a group of women who regularly smoked pot and got high to help manage the boredom and loneliness of a sea-captains wife.

Whale bone was also used for many applications as well including tool making and also a fine art application know as scrimshaw - which is where art work is transposed on to the whale bone.

Scrimshaw art work - A cribbage board with art on whale bone...

Whaling was in its hey-day well into the 19th century but the discovery of petroleum oil changed things dramatically and eventually the market for whale oil collapsed and it became unprofitable to continue to hunt for whales - thank goodness...

As far as my trip goes.  I mentioned I was in Mystic and Stonington Connecticut.  I then spent time at Block Island and a couple of other nice anchorages along the Block Island Sound.  Then I spent a week with Janet at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.  There is much of the whaling heritage I spoke of above on these islands - but these places are fabulous tourist destinations.  Janet and I rode bikes around these islands and saw some awesome sights - including some small and charming old houses as well as some huge extravagant vacation homes.  We also saw some great views of the water from the ferry rides we took back and forth and from the bluffs high up on the islands.  We also had some delicious meals and a few drinks in order to stay 'hydrated'...

JG and ME in Nantucket...

View of the harbor and homes along the water in Martha's Vineyard

A view from the beach up to the Bluffs on Block Island

Here's a view of one of the many beautiful sunsets I've seen on this trip.

Lighthouses are another thing altogether - I could do a whole blog post just on lighthouses..  There are so many designs and there is tremendous lore and history to lighthouses...  This one is on Block Island...

Also on Block Island you are awakened by the shouts of 'ANDIAMO' - which means 'Let's Go'...  This is a bakery boat that brings fresh baked goods and coffee to boats in the harbor shouting ANDIAMO!!!  at the top of their lungs first thing in the morning.

I have completed 2 months of my trip and as I enter month 3 I plan to transit the Cape Cod and Boston area and then head north to the Coast of Maine...