Tina and I were scheduled to do a walking tour up to the main museum in town. Even though it was raining pretty heavily when we scheduled to leave, we decided a little wetness is nothing a Floridian can't handle. The tour was done by a park ranger from the National Park Service who was an expert on all things New Bedford.
The tour ended up at the Whale Museum which detailed whales and their lives, but also the whaling industry of New Bedford. Throughout the 19th century Nantucket and then New Bedform was a mecca of economic success since it ruled the whaling industry and therefore produced more whale oil than any other place in the world. It was a tough life for the people who worked the industry, but extremely lucrative for those who owned or captained the ships.
The museum had several skeletons of whales which, unfortunately does no justice to just how big they are.
Ships would sail from New Bedford and not return until there barrels were full of whale oil. Sometimes this would take up to 4 to 5 years to catch and process a total of 20 whales. All of the stripping of the blubber and boiling the oil out was all done on-board ship.
If you're at sea for years and only occasionally working on whales, the workers get bored and would most likely mutiny without some entertainment. The entertainment was performed by the men working on "Scrimshaw" or artwork done on whale teeth, bones, or other parts that would have otherwise gone to waste. The museum had an amazing collection of 100's and 100's of pieces "Scrimshaw".
I thought of my musically talented parents when I saw a "Scrimshaw" banjo made of whale bone.
One more fascinating picture from the entry hall of the museum. This whale washed up shore on Virginia beaches back in 1994. It was a mother male 10 months into a 14 month gestation period. It was heading south towards warmer waters when it was hit by a ships propellars and ended up dying. If you look carefully the fetus whale bones are positioned in the mothers belly where it would have been in the birthing canal.
In the afternoon we visited William Rotch, Jr's house, a man who made his fortune off the whale oil industry. He was one of the first to build his house up on the hill overlooking the downtown area of New Bedford.
There was a fascinating portrait in the house called "A Carpenters Son". It's a depiction of a teenage carpenter Jesus with his parents in the background. The canvas had been rolled up and forgotten for a number of years and was finally found behind a refrigerator at the local Unitarian church. It took a tremendous effort to restore it and repairs tears and scrapes, but it resulted in a tremendous painting.
The other outstanding feature of the house were the gardens outside.
This picture was taken shortly before Tina dumped Karen out of her wheelchair while trying to get her across the grass. Oooooooppppsssss! Fortunately it was on the grass so Karen was perfectly fine and we all had a good laugh about it.
This picture is overlooking the harbor of New Bedford and one of the most productive fishing fleets of the world.
The dinner crowd of 8 people from Brevard County Florida. Front row L to R is Karen, Tina, Barb, Barb, and Cynthia. Back row L to R is Sue, Charlie, and yours truly.
After one last spin around the town, the boat was off headed towards Nantucket.
Until tomorrow, have a happy happy.
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