Category: Massachusetts

It was May 1977 and Mark and I were canoeing on the Concord River under the Old North Bridge. It was a beautiful, sunny day with temps close to 80 degrees. We had no idea that a freak snow storm would hit the next day. We were finishing up two weeks of army training at Fort Devens which included a rather unpleasant exercise where we had to try and escape the “enemy” while navigating a large wooded area at night. We were eventually captured and wound up in a mock prisoner of war camp. The canoe trip was the perfect break and a chance to connect with history.

Forty-one years later we were back at the North Bridge although this time not in canoes but on foot. In late August 2018 we visited the historical sites of Concord and Lexington where the Revolutionary War first began. It was at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775 when Colonial Minutemen first fired at advancing British soldiers with the skirmish leaving two colonists and three redcoats dead. On one side of the bridge is the Minute Man statue dedicated on July 4, 1885 at the 100th anniversary of the battle. Inscribed is the opening stanza of a poem from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood, and fired the shot heard round the world.”

The National Park Service operates a visitor center in a former homestead near the Bridge. There are other sites of interest as well including the Battle Road Trail which is popular with walkers and bikers. The five mile trail begins in Concord and ends in Lexington, covering much of the original route where Colonial militia and the British skirmished during the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Along the way are spots of historical interest such as a monument to Paul Revere who was captured on this route during his midnight ride to warn the colonists.

The Hartwell Tavern completed in 1733 is located along the trail and has been restored with much of the original building intact. This family home and tavern was a witness to the Revolutionary War events along the Battle Road.

National Park staff regularly give walking tours along the road explaining significant events. In the photo below, our guide points out a place on the road called “Bloody Angle” where the heaviest fighting took place on April 19, 1775. The British suffered heavy losses after an ambush was set up by the Colonialists at this bend in the road.

We wandered the Green or historic town common at Lexington where opening shots fired by the British signaled the beginning of the War. The event started after British troops left Boston to search for weapons and ammunition supposedly stored at a Concord farm.

After being warned by Paul Revere that the British were advancing, Colonial Militia met at Buckman Tavern before facing British soldiers on Lexington Green. It was on the Green where they suffered their first losses before the British marched on to the North Bridge at Concord.

I love seeing old churches and the Lexington First Parish Church located across from the Green is a beautiful historic building.

I took an interesting tour of an author’s home in Concord. If any of you have read “Little Women” or seen the movie you will know about Louisa May Alcott who based the book on her life. I loved reading this book in my youth. She lived in Orchard House with her parents and two sisters from 1858-1877. The tour included most rooms of the house including Louisa’s bedroom with the desk near the window where she wrote her famous novel. The house seems quite authentic since 80% of the furnishings originally belonged to the Alcotts. Even artwork sketched on the walls by Louisa’s artistic sister May can still be seen.

Thanks for checking in! Our next blog moves us across the country to the Arizona desert.

While staying in Rhode Island we took a day trip to the town of New Bedford in Massachusetts. During the 19th century the town was nicknamed “The Whaling City” as it was one of the most important whaling ports in the world. Today, along cobblestoned streets you can visit historic buildings operated by the National Park Service and tour the New Bedford Whaling Museum. This museum was the reason I wanted to come to the city because it was noted as being one of the best whaling museums in America.

The museum has a number of interesting exhibits with the “Lagoda,” an 89 foot, half scale model of a whaleship the centerpiece. During our visit, museum staff dressed up in period costumes and playing various parts, put on a play of a whaling ship getting ready to go to sea. I watched for awhile and then moved on to see what the rest of the museum had to offer. There were skeletons of whales, descriptions of whaling methods including use of small boats to catch the whales. The try pots pictured above were kept on the ship deck and used to render oil from blubber after the whale had been cut in pieces.

In one of the rooms was an exhibit of the first man to sail solo around the world. In 1895, Joshua Slocum at the age of 54 left Boston in a sloop he rebuilt called the “Spray.” He made it around the world in a little over three years coming back with artifacts from his voyage, some on display at the museum. He paid his way by giving lectures at various ports. Mr. Slocum wrote a popular book about his voyage that was published in 1900. Since I enjoy reading about sea voyages and this one was important historically, I downloaded his book on my kindle and right now in the process of reading it. So far it is quite interesting and he is a very good writer. Mr. Slocum and the Spray disappeared in 1909 while traveling to South America and were never seen again. The most surprising thing about this man of the sea? He didn’t know how to swim.

My favorite exhibit was a room filled with scrimshaw – historic carvings made on whale bone, usually teeth of sperm whales. It became a hobby of whalers and seamen who created intricate and beautiful designs. Common themes were clipper ships, whaling boats, the whale hunt and even famous people like George and Martha Washington. The scrimshaw in the photo above was done on a sperm whale tooth caught near the Galápagos Islands in the year 1817. The whale gave 100 barrels of oil for the ship. I like that the description was written on the tooth. Below are more examples of scrimshaw.

The view from the top floor deck of the museum gives a scenic view of the town of New Bedford and the harbor.

After our museum visit we headed over to see the historic Mariners’ Home, a boarding house for whalers and fishermen which is now used for exhibits. It is next to the Seamen’s Bethel, the chapel of the whalemen. It was here that author Herman Melville attended services and later in his book “Moby Dick” referenced the chapel and the sermon given there in a pulpit shaped like the bow of a ship. (Google Orson Wells and Moby Dick to see a powerful film version of the sermon). In 1961, a boat builder constructed a replica pulpit like the one described in the book. On the walls of the chapel are the names of New Bedford whalers and fishermen who lost their lives at sea. All of the remembrance plaques as well as the bow shaped pulpit really give a feel that this was a church for whaling families. A few scenes from other films have also been made at the Bethel.

Our last exhibit stop was away from the historical district in an event building. A very large room was needed for the exhibit of the longest painting in America. The 1,275 foot long “Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World” is one of the more unusual and amazing things I have seen during our travels. It was painted in 1848 by two men and as the title implies, shows a whaling voyage around the world that started from New Bedford. Benjamin Russell had sailed aboard a whaling ship to earn some money and decided to recreate his voyage with the help of an assistant. The Panorama detailed people and places that Benjamin encountered and was painted on cotton sheeting with a water based paint.

Historically, moving panoramas like this one were mounted on spools and scrolled much like celluloid film. The painting traveled to a number of U.S. cities before it was donated to the New Bedford Whaling Museum 100 years ago. After 150 years of travel it had tears, worn spots and burns. In 2017, the museum completed a major restoration of the Panorama. Since rolling the painting would put it at risk of damage, it is displayed at its full length. Below is a photo showing the painting covering both sides of the room.

The painting shows the typical route of a whaler in the mid-19th century, with stops in the Azores, Cabo Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Chile and many ports in the Pacific. Below is a photo of the Volcano at Fogo (mountain of fire) in Cape Verde which erupted in 1847.

Since this was a whaling voyage, there are numerous scenes of whale hunts such as in the photo below.

The Grand Panorama is a wondrous spectacle and I felt fortunate that I was in New Bedford at the time it was being displayed after restoration. It took a long time to walk beside the cotton sheeting and see all of the painted images and follow this voyage around the world. I doubt my photos do it justice, especially in the size of the painting. It made a big impression on me and I thought about the Panorama many times after my visit. I might have come to New Bedford for the whaling museum, but it ended up being the Panorama that was the reason to come.

So who were all the whalers that were drawn to whaling in New Bedford? They came from many different places and included Americans from New England, Basques. the British, Dutch, the Portuguese, native Hawaiians and escaped African American slaves. It seemed fitting for us to end our day eating dinner at a Portuguese Restaurant called Tia Maria’s in the historic part of the city.

I hope you enjoyed a look at the whaling history in New Bedford!