Mystic(al) musings ...

Draft from an earlier day

Finally making it's way ...! 

Day 3 - Mystic(al) Sea Port

Pure Enchantment !

Starting afresh today we were delighted by a random sweet gesture by our waitress. Me and my friend then headed to the museum Mystic Sea Port. Being my first exposure to a nautical museum I would say this place was indeed mystical as the name suggests. To get the best out of this place, I would suggest visiting this place during a weekday to avoid the crowd and explore the place in great detail at a comfortable pace . Which is what we did and I felt totally enchanted at the end of the day. I felt I could relate to this place a lot and couldn't help but compare the whale ship described below to present modern day ships I had sailed on as a child with my dad.
                                                                                 
          

Charles W Morgan

We first started exploring the Charles W Morgan whale-ship built in 1841, which is currently being renovated as part of a 4 year project and is expected to be set to sail again in 2 years time . The entire process of blubber extraction right from capture of whales to boiling the fat in a furnace(to extract oil) was explained in depth by the museum guide. Throughout my tour of this ship I could not help but recollect fond memories of sailing in passenger ships with dad and family, and draw comparisons to differences/similarities on how this ship had been built and operated. The major striking difference was that this being a sail boat did not need an engine room, fuel etc . It was indeed fascinating to learn how the sails were hoisted and how such a big ship was operated using sails . The bottom deck had rooms for captain, first mate, second mate etc and their wives. Seeing these rooms made me reminisce the time I had spent in my dad's cabin/ room during long voyages at sea.

Next we got to see how the printing press functioned in the 19 Th. century.  The museum guide patiently explained the entire process despite her busy schedule. It was interesting to observe how this process has evolved leading to present modern printers which has simplified the experience of printing to such a great extent.

The process of printing explained in detail by these pictures below. 

Wooden block print form used to print a picture

Rolling the ink

Pressing to get the imprint

Pulling the tray to get the printed paper

Lead characters placed in the required order

The Lead Character Set

               

Fun fact from documentary "Ancient Inventions" by Terry Jones, the Koreans were the ones who had invented the idea of using movable lead pieces for printing words on paper.

Final Output

As I type this blog post, changing colors, changing fonts, setting Italics and Bold on characters so easily within fraction of seconds, I cant help but imagine how tedious and meticulous it would be for me to do the same during the 19 th century.

Truly grateful to technology, indeed I am !

On a lighter note, Can you guess the amount of time it would have taken to create the printed paper on the left ? ;)

Though we missed the planetarium show by a whisker, we got to see the sailor's navigation room with models explaining these concepts on navigation.

• Round earth to flat map
• Direction n speed
• Measuring an angle
• Finding latitude n longtitude

Some more things that we checked out that made this museum visit a worth while one of a kind experience ...

Making of Barrels

                     The instructions in these pills were hilarious. They read something like "Consume until symptoms go away". It was evident that the doctors at that time were not aware of the concept of overdose. Also most of these had a considerable amount of alcohol in them.

Sailor's Drug Store

The rectangular box below is the water tank, and this engine used to be hand-driven by workers. Fire-fighting back then seems indeed strenuous besides it's risky nature.

19 th Century Fire Engine

                             

Horse Carriage Ride

Sailor's Reading room for recreation

A cute lighthouse

                            

We ended the mystical museum visit with an enchanting ride on a steam ship which is the last coal fired steam ship since 1908 consuming about 1000 pounds of coal per day ..



  Serene scenes from the ship ride--->                  

  The gentle ripples the steam ship created, made the water beneath feel like as if I was riding on a violet velvety satin cloth !

Must say, the detailed insight of the lives of sailors of the 19 Th. century that I got from this museum also made me better understand/imagine how my dad's life would have been while he was a sailor!  

 

We ended the day (true to every word in this sentence), by having the best pizza ever our lives at Mystic Pizza !

Fun Fact: A Julia Roberts movie was screened at this place Mystic Pizza

More colorful posts from the trip next ;) !...