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Mystic Seaport Museum |
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One could return again and again to Mystic Seaport Museum to see the various indoor exhibits, walk through the preserved 19th-century town, or climb aboard one of the venerable sailing ships moored and preserved here. |
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Although Mystic Seaport is technically a nonprofit museum, there is much more life to it than just rows of glass cases housing exhibits. You will see scrimshaw, old tools, watches, clocks, chronometers, navigational instruments, and so on, but most of your time will be taken walking through the village and watching the interpreters (staff) do their jobs and explain what they're doing. You'll see a half dozen crew members high in the rigging of the square-rigged ship Joseph Conrad, furling a sail in time to a chantey they sing, with one rope supporting all of them high above the deck. Mystic Seaport Museum began in 1929 as the Marine Historical Association, founded by three citizens of Mystic CT who were interested in preserving aspects and objects from the town's maritime past. The site of the museum is the former shipyard of George Greenman and Company, which built wooden clipper ships in the 19th century. To get the feel of the place, stay at least 3 or 4 hours. If you've arrived late in the day, you can buy a ticket and have it validated for the next day as well. With your ticket you'll be given a very handsome map of the village and its exhibits, plus a list of the daily events, from special lectures to sea chantey sings. In winter, interpreted exhibits and craft demonstrations don't begin until 10 am. Look at the list to get an idea of what'll be in action for the hours you're in the village. The museum can be divided basically into three areas: the exhibits of various boats, instruments, figureheads, and the like, mostly near the Seamen's Inne; the restored village and waterfront area; and the shipyard at the southern end of the grounds where the seaport cares for its ships. The Coastal Life Area is the official name of Mystic's old-time seaside village at the northern reaches of the museum, near the Seamen's Inne. The village includes the shops of a shipsmith, shipcarver, and printer, a cooperage, model shop, bank, shipping office, grocery, hardware store, chapel, schoolhouse, pharmacy, rope walk, clock and nautical instrument shop, mast hoop shop, ship's chandlery, and tavern. Indoor exhibits are housed in several buildings. In the three-story Stillman Building are ship's models, paintings, scrimshaw, and an exhibit which traces the history of New England's maritime towns from their beginnings in the 1600s through their golden age in the 1800s. The Mallory Building is devoted to exhibits explaining the Victorian-era shipping business of the Mallory family, and also shipbuilding in Mystic. In the Wendell Building are collections of figureheads and other nautical wood carvings. Changing exhibits of paintings, prints, and other artifacts are the specialty of the R J Schaefer Building. Children are fascinated by the Children's Museum, a replica of the captain's quarters on a late 19th-century ship. Here the captain and his family would live, and kids can climb into the bunk, look through the porthole, and examine the toys and games used by seafaring children to ward off the boredom of a long sea voyage a hundred years ago. The museum's shipyard is in the southern section. Today, the museum's collection of old ships includes the Charles W Morgan (1841), the last wooden whaling ship in the United States; the full-rigged training ship Joseph Conrad (1882), and the fishing schooner L A Dunton (1921). It also owns a steamboat called the Sabino (1908), which once plied the waters off Casco Bay in Maine, but which now takes museum visitors on half-hour cruises on the Mystic River from mid-May to mid-October, for a small fee. In addition, the museum has a collection of 300 small craft, many of which can be seen in the Small Boat Exhibit and the North Boat Shed. Besides these exhibits, the museum boasts the Henry B duPont Preservation Shipyard, fully equipped and staffed to perform repairs and to preserve wooden vessels; and the Seaport Planetarium, where shows explain the significance of stars in the night sky, and the importance of celestial navigation. Remember that the crowds are heavy in summer—although the museum seems large enough to absorb them all without too much crowding—and that traffic on the mile-long road from I-95 to Mystic Seaport may be pokey. At Mystic Seaport there's a lot of free parking. Take Exit 90 from I-95, and follow the signs. |
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The Welcome Center at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic CT.
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