A long, long day of fun yesterday. Decided to put off going into Boston that day because the weather was kind of cloudy and it was suppose to be sunny and warmer here today. So it was cloudy and a bit chilly, but nice enough out to go do something, so it was off to the coast and some time in the village of Salem.

    While most of the world knows Salem as the place where a bunch of women and young girls were convicted of being witches back in the 1700's and burned at the stake, I always think of it as another great seaport along the east coast of the U.S.A.  So I was more interested in exploring that part of the area's history and they have a nice National Maritime Park right in downtown Salem to do that at. 

     It only took an hour to get over to that part of the coast and a few more minutes to find a parking garage to park the beast. Only a couple of minutes walk to the harbor and a few more to figure out a plan for the next couple of hours. Spent some time just wandering around looking at boats and reading signs. Also spent $5 and got on a tour through the Maritime Park people, which got me onto the 'Friendship', a replica of a 'East India' trade ship that use to run cargo in and out of the port of Salem, as well as a tour of the Salem Custom's House.

   The tour of the 'Friendship' was interesting  as it gave me a chance to see what a full rigged ship would of looked like, even though it was pointed out that it was actually a very small ship compared to later 'Clippers and other Ships of the Line'. Still seemed pretty big to me considering that the crew for that size ship would of only been 20-24 men. It was also interesting to hear about what hadn't been built on this ship that would of been on the original. For instance; the height between the 'tweens deck and the main deck' would of been much shorter so more storage space in the hold would of been possible. Of course that meant having to stoop every time you went below decks. It was also likely that there would of been a lot fewer bunks, certainly fewer than there were men on board, as you would of been required to 'hot rack' or share a bunk, with someone else on a different schedule. The bunks would of also been stacked 3 high along the bulkheads, instead of two high, so "much" less room in your little space.

   The second part of the tour was over in the Custom House where cargo's coming into the country would of been inspected and assessed a tax on them before they could be sold. Duty in the Custom House at that time was a very important job as more than 80% of the money the government had to use at that time came from these taxes. It was also a position that was attained through patronage depending on who was elected to office at that time. To this end one of the best known Customs Inspectors, his actual title was called  Surveyor, was Nathanial Hawthorne. He spent several years there in Salem in charge of the crew of men who actually went out on the docks and inspected, tallied and weighed all the goods that were coming into port. He was actually kept on in this position when a new president, Taylor, was elected, but came under intense pressure to quit or resign. He evidently became very disillusioned and ended up quitting. But his disillusionment over this period is evidently the reason why the first chapter in his book, 'The Scarlet Letter', is titled 'The Custom House' even though it has very little to do with the actual story. Oh, by the way, as far as anyone knows, Hawthorne never found a 'Faded Scarlet 'A' in one of the rooms of the Custom House.

    One other interesting thing of note about Hawthorne is that one of his ancestors, a great, great grandfather, had been one of the judges at the Salem witch trails and had been instrumental in punishing the women by burning. This knowledge was still so widely known and so vilified still, that Nathaniel changed the spelling of his last name from Hathorne to Hawthorne to escape some of the controversy.

   Also spent some time wandering the streets of downtown Salem taking in the sights. It is obvious that Halloween is a big deal in town for all the merchants. Talking to a couple locals though was enough to find out that they would be happy when all the 'nonsense' was over with. One person also thought it was interesting that the main town of Salem was so involved in the whole 'witch' thing when it had actually occurred several miles away in the another village out near present day Danvers. Of course the trail and punishment part had occurred in the main village of Salem.

    There was also a little time at the end of the day so I went over to a local State Park and walked around there for a couple of hours. It was nice to get out and actually walk a little bit more than usual.

A day spent in and around Salem Massachusetts.



A view of the ship 'Friendship'. A reproduction of an actual East India trade vessel that sailed out of Salem in the early 1700's.

The figure head on the ship 'Friendship'.



The foremast on the ship. The most forward of the 3 masts on the ship. It takes a lot of lines to hold something like that up.

A look at more of the rigging. They were doing some work on the ship so the top most part of the mizzen mast was missing.

An amazing number of lines are needed to hold every thing up and control all of the sails and spars. It becomes obvious where the saying 'learning the ropes' comes from.

The foremast's fife rail with all of its belaying pins and lines. All the lines on this ship are modern synthetics as they hold up better, and longer, than natural hemp and sisal lines would. A lot of these are some sort of 'poly' synthetic, but some of the larger ones used to hold the masts up actually use Kevlar strands. That is the same stuff they make bullet proof vests out of, among other things.

The steering station aboard ship. This was really interesting to me in that they used a wheel for normal steering, but it was directly attached to this huge tiller, the big wooden stick in this picture, that was also on deck. Most ships would of had the lines running below decks and attaching directly to the rudder. This arrangement makes a lot of sense to me though, if one of the lines was to break, steering could be done by taking the tiller directly. Though it also meant that you could break a leg easily if one of the lines let go and you happened to be standing next to that huge club when it swung into you.



A view down below on the deck directly below the main deck. The actual storage hold would still be below this one, but a few ships stores would be held here as well as all the sleeping quarters for the crew. The cannon there is actually a wooden replica. Turns out that a boat like this might actually have several of these on board as well as a few, 3-4, real ones. That way a crew could position a lot of guns along the rail and fire off the few real ones and make the impression that they were better armed than they really were. One thing of real interest to me was that most crews were under orders not to fight if they were clearly out numbered or out gunned. In most cases they were told to turn tail and run away if possible. If they were captured it turns out that the insurance companies of that time would only pay off if you hadn't been fighting. So the ships owners would make their money back no matter what, while the crew might actually end up going to prison for a few years.  

The Custom House in Salem Mass. Nathanial Hawthorne's office would of been on the first floor left hand side in this photo.

A small grave yard and old wooden building in downtown Salem.

At the end of Derby Wharf is this small harbor entrance light. Derby Wharf is one of 3 left in the area. At it's heyday in the early 1800's there would of been 80 wharf's extending into the bay. Salem lost out over time to harbors that had deeper entrances and channels. Ships continued to grow larger and need deeper water. There also wasn't any type of distribution system in place for goods coming in.

Another view.

 

 

 

The walk at the State Park took me out to this old granite quarry that has filled in with salt water from the ocean. The park is right at the tip of Cape Ann near Rockport, Mass.

They had this lookout building there at the park that sort of looks like a light house, but isn't. They were closed by the time I got there. 

Another view of the look out.