Leslie and David's Wanderings: 3 September 2022 Mystic Seaport Museum

Sunday, September 4, 2022

3 September 2022 Mystic Seaport Museum

Just a bit further east on I-95 from Groton is the historic town of Mystic. The grounds of the former Greenman Shipyard and Mill have been turned into a historical New England Mystic Seaport museum ($27 per person entry fee). Some of the buildings are from the original shipyard and others have been moved here from around the area. The shipyard is still in operation and does renovation of historical wooden ships. The Mayflower II we saw in Plymouth had just finished a refurbishment at this ship yard. In addition they have several wooden sailing ships docked at the site. After a quick lunch at the Spouter Tavern, we toured the exhibits about whaling before boarding the former whaling ship Charles W Morgan for a tour of the whaling ship. There we learned some of the grislier facts about the whaling trade and life aboard the whaler. She sailed 37 times over 80 years. With each sailing going for several years. She roamed all over the world in search of whales until 1921. The whales were hunted primarily for their blubber which we would be rendered down to oil on the ship. The whale oil was very expensive until the discovery of petroleum oil. After her retirement in 1921, she had a brief stint in the movies before being turned into a exhibit ship in New Bedford. She was moved to the Mystic Seaport in 1941. We then visited the Fireman, a retired New York City Fire Boat that was on duty in 2001 and helped pump water onto the World Trade Center wreckage after 911. Her active duty was from 1938 to 2010. We then wandered through the historical trade buildings including the cooperage, the ship forge (we had to ask the lady there is she watched Forged in Fire (she hadn’t)), the shipwrights, and the former Plymouth Rope Walk. We eventually ended up at the shipyard where they repair the historical ships. They have a Swedish ship currently in restoration. After wandering through the wood working shops for the ship yard, David thinks he could enjoy working here! After a visit to the gift shop, we headed back to the Wanderer.