Eclectic Echoes

Re: Gmail Invites

Give that man an invite -
The Joseph Conrad is a permanent part of the Mystic Seaport collection. Currently the Conrad’s biggest mission is as the center of the Seaport’s youth training programs. The 1882, Danish built square rigger is home to many youth during the summer while they learn to sail on the Mystic estuary.

Re: Gmail Invites

The steamer, Sabino, is one as well.

L.A. Dunton

There goes another invite!

Yep the L.A. Dunton is one of the few Gloucester Schooners left, and is believed to be the last one built as an entirely sail powered ship. Although it was outfit with an engine in the 1920’s and 30’s when the Seaport bought the schooner it was completely restored to it’s 1921 engine-less design. The 123’ L.A. Dunton is now a National Historic Landmark and a permanent part of the Mystic Seaport fleet.

Charles W. Morgan

We have another winner…

The Charles W. Morgan is the last of the Whaling Ships (a fleet which once numbered nearly 800 ships), and the pride of the Seaport. She was built in 1841 in Massachusetts and worked as a whaler for 80 years. As you noted she is another of the ships from the Seaport listed on the U.S. National Historic Register.

The Charles W. Morgan is a daily part of life at the Seaport and in Mystic. She is visible from most places in town and dominates the Seaports waterfront along with the Joseph Conrad. The wonderful thing about the Charles W. Morgan is that it is completely open for visitors to explore the decks, holds, and extremely cramped quarters that the crews called home on voyages that often lasted for 3 years or more.

Sparkman

Hmmm…

I’m not familiar with a ship by the name “Sparkman” got a link or history?

Sparkman is the name of a famous yacht designer and Sparkman & Stephens is an extremely successful and influential naval architecture firm, well known for their designs of a number of successful America’s Cup defenders and the DUKW. They held a 75th anniversary event here in Mystic this past June. There are a number of Sparkman & Stephens designed boats in Mystic including one that is definitely considered a “tall ship” at the Mystic Seaport…

Benjamin F. Packard

Well…

The Benjamin F. Packard was an 1883 built 244’ square rigged “Down Easter”. She and the other “Down Easters” replaced clipper ships as the primary ships running cargo from the eastern seaports (in the Parckard’s case New York was her primary Eastern port) around Cape Horn to America’s Pacific seaports. While the clippers (for which Mystic’s builders were famous) were much faster, the “Down Easters” carried a significantly larger cargo.

The Benjamin F. Packard worked the Cape Horn cargo route for some 20 years before being sold to work as a “salmon packer” in the Pacific Northwest and Alaskan fishing industry. She ran workers, machinery and parts from the Seattle area to Alaska in the Spring then returned at the end of the season with the workers and a hold full of canned salmon. She did this for nearly 20 years.

The Benjamin F. Packard was retired to New York in the mid 1920’s where she eventually became an amusement attraction until the hurricane of 1938 caused her extensive damage. She was scuttled after much of the aft cabin interior was slavaged and brought to the Mystic Seaport Museum. Currently housed in it’s own building, a restoration of the Captain’s stateroom, day cabin and the officer’s mess display the wonderful woods, marble, brass and upholstery in their original glory. Truly a sight to see, the craftmanship of the aft cabins gives visitors taste of what must once have been a magnificent ship.

While she doesn’t properly reside in Mystic, and from what I know has never visited the Mystic River in whole, her aft cabin, anchor and other items are a major exhibit at the Seaport. I appreciate the effort you took to find her, and I have a ton of invites left (they keep replenishing the stock!) so… yes it’s definitely a tall ship, and Mystic is the home of her Captains quarters etc, and you have one gmail invite on the way….

Re: Gmail Invites

gotta have a name for a boat or something. hes giving them away for a scavenger hunt type thing. google “mystic tall ship” maybe. im workin on finding one too.

Kingston II

Yep, there’s the tug. I have a soft spot for that one, glad to see someone name her. Thanks for playing my trivia/scavenger hunt game.

For a couple of pictures of the Kingston II:
Santa on Kingston II
Snow on the Kingston II

You should find an invite in your mailbox within the hour!

Emma C. Berry

The Emma C. Berry will get you a gmail invite!

Another of the Mystic Seaport Museum’s National Historic Landmarks, Emma C. BerryM was designed, built and launched from Noank, a beautiful village at the mouth of the Mystic River. She was built in 1866 and is known as a “Noank Smack”, a respected fishing vessel design with a wet well to keep the catch fresh (alive) until the return to port.

Emma worked as a fishing boat from 1866 until the mid 1920’s, when she was used as a coastal freighter in Maine and Massachusetts’s waters. She was discovered and restored by a wooden boat enthusiast who then donated her to the Seaport, where she can be seen today still afloat about 2 miles from her original home.

Sabino

Yep, the Sabino steams up and down the Mystic River (estuary actually) every day.

She’s one of, if not the, last coal-fired wooden steamers. The Sabino was built at the turn of the century — er, that’s the turn of the 20th century — and carried passengers up and down a variety of rivers up there. She came to Mystic in the 70’s and now does half hour long trips around the main seaport area all day, with a 90 minute trips to the mouth of the river at the end of the day. On weekends she make one last run downriver for a 90 minute evening cruise. (very affordable too, if you are visiting the Seaport or are Seaport Members — something like $5)

Somewhere I have a picture of her pulled out of the water for the winter. It was an odd-duck sort of image for me, as spring through fall the Sabino is such constant part of life in Mystic. As sure as the drawbridge. We hear her whistle and see her making the vaious trips every day, all through the day.

One gmail invite on it’s way… thanks for playing!

Florence

I’ll give that one an invite…

The Florence was built just across the street from where I live, an example of the type of ships used along the Connecticut coast to replace the schooners such as the L.A. Dunton. The Florence and others from Connecticut were known as “western-rig draggers” and were generally smaller than the “eastern-rigged draggers” which became the primary ships of the New England fishing fleets. They were called “draggers” after their fishing method of dragging long nets along the bottom to gather fish.

The Florence now serves as the only working dragger in a museum collection, and as an education platform carrying students to collect marine biology specimens from the sound.

Brilliant

Well, no, the Brilliant has not been named until now. Although it may have been the boat that Joe M. was looking for.

The Brilliant was designed by Sparkman and Stephens (see my earlier comment with subject title of “Sparkman”). Built in ‘32, she made an Atlantic crossing record in ‘33 and participated in many races. During WWII she was converted for and served in the Coast Guard. She came to the museum in 1953.

The Brilliant serves as a training boat taking adult and teen programs to sea often. She still enters races and often wins them either in her class or “in fleet.” 

Re: Australia

The Australia will get you an invite!

She is (was?) a 70’ schooner, built in 1862. During th civil war she was used by the British out of the Bahamas to run the Union blockade for cotton from the South. After serving as a sailing education vessel at the museum, it was discovered during a 1962 restoration attempt that she was too far gone for it to make sense. She’s was preserved beached at the Seaport, where visitors can now walk all through her, seeing the construction methods and skeleton of a fine schooner.

Re: The Nellie

Sure, the Nellie will get you an invite.

She occasionally sits docked at Schooner’s Wharf, where the Chamber of Commerce and our favorite yarn store also are. A good friend gave me the history of this local ship. She was built around 1890 in Long Island and worked the Connecticut coastal waters dredging oysters. Nellie could also be found in slow times hauling other cargos including sheep and potatoes to the coastal toans including Block Island, Mystic, Noank and Stongington. The Museum aquired her when she was finally retired from the oyster business in 1964.

Nellie and similar coastal oyster dredgers had a unique combination of traits which made them ideal for their trade. They were designed especially for carrying cargo in shallow waters and had sail enough to allow them to rival sleeker yachts in speed. They continued successfully as long as they did because they were the best sail powered boat for the job and motorized dredging for oysters was prohibited along Connecticut’s coast.

Roann

There’s the wooden “eastern-rigged” dragger.

Roann was named after her original owner and his wife - Roy and Annie Campbell. Roy had her built in Maine in 1947 and used her out of Martha’s Vineyard dragging an “otter trawl” for cod, haddock and flounder. She continued to work for 2 more owners until the early 70’s. She is now preserved as one of the last surviving wooden “eastern-rig” draggers.

The “eastern-rigged” draggers like Roannwere used more in the open waters, replacing the sailing schooners such as the L.A. Dunton, while the “western-rig” draggers such as the Florence were used in the more protected waters off Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Regina M.

Since I got a few more invites, and I never did stick to the tour and tall ships anyway (but then that term is rather hard to nail down anyway) I’ll take Regnina M. for a Gmail invite.

All I know of her is that she is a “carry away sloop” of about 45’. She was used in the early 1900’s in Fundy Bay to carry herring from the weirs (a fence designed to direct the fence into a trap) to the canneries on shore. The museum aquired her in 1940 and undertook a restoration of her from 1992-1994.