Author: Mystic Seaport Museum

DECEPTION ISLAND — When Nathaniel’s Palmer’s sloop Hero anchored at Deception Island on that fateful day in 1820 when it is thought that Palmer first saw the continent of Antarctica, a small sailor’s ditty box was along for the ride. Two hundred years later, that same box – now in the Museum’s collection – made the trip back to the very same harbor.

The trip was the idea of Museum trustee Alex Bulazel, who has traveled to Antarctica and the Arctic many times. It was Bulazel who called attention to the 200th anniversary of Palmer’s sighting of the continent.

Bulazel, Museum president Steve White, and 12 other people with ties to Mystic Seaport Museum were part of a group of 186 passengers on the ship Le Lyrial on a cruise to Antarctica in January to visit sites connected to the Palmer bicentennial. The expedition was organized by the luxury travel company Abercrombie & Kent. Glenn Gordinier, co-director of the Museum’s Munson Institute, was on board to give talks on the history of the Palmer story and Antarctica.

Palmer and a crew of four were on a sealing expedition on the 47-foot Hero. While anchored in Whalers Bay on Deception Island, Palmer went ashore and climbed a hill where he saw the continent of Antarctica for the first time on November 17, 1820. Two other expeditions led by the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen and Englishman Edward Bransfield also sighted the continent earlier in the year.

The 7″ x 3″ wooden ditty box was donated to the Museum in 1950. It is ornately carved and has an inscription, “L.B. Stonington Slp. Hero.” The L.B. probably stands for Stanton L. Burdick, who was 16 at the time. Ditty boxes were carried by sailors, who would keep special items and personal remembrances in them during their time at sea.

NEW YORK – Amtrak continues to prioritize upgrading the customer experience as travelers along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) will now benefit from increased weekday service on Northeast Regional trains at popular stations in Mystic, CT, and Westerly, R.I., to receive more access to the region’s major markets. The new schedule, which largely alternates trains at these stations to provide more meaningful service, will go into effect beginning Monday, March 16, 2020.

There will be four additional stops on Southbound trains and three additional stops on Northbound trains.

“By providing additional service for Mystic and Westerly, travelers and residents will reap the benefits of a more efficient travel experience,” said Amtrak President and CEO Richard Anderson. “The benefits will also expand beyond these two stations as it allows Amtrak to better serve populations and cities along the NEC by offering additional access to and from urban areas in Boston, New York, and Virginia.”

Weekday Southbound trains will now stop at Westerly and Mystic at the following times (new service highlighted in red):

Weekday Northbound trains will now stop at Westerly and Mystic at the following times:

In addition to the customer benefits and improvements to quality of travel via the expanded service, Amtrak also remains committed to continuous improvement and innovation throughout the entirety of its rail network, on its trains and at its stations. Amtrak recently announced the expansion of its popular assigned seating offering in Business Class for Northeast Regional trains, which provides a more seamless onboarding process and the option for customers to select their preferred seat. Northeast Regional trains, as part of Amtrak’s NEC fleet, are also the country’s only all-electric intercity trains, providing a more environmentally friendly way to travel as part of Amtrak’s goal to reduce its carbon footprint.

There are no changes to weekend trains at this time; Schedules are subject to change. Tickets are now on sale on Amtrak.com, the Amtrak app, via our ticket agents or by calling 1-800-USA RAIL.

Source: Amtrak press release.

Mystic Seaport Museum is exploring the possibility of adding electric propulsion to its steamboat Sabino with the installation of an electric motor and battery bank. The boat’s boiler and its original steam engine would remain in the vessel and operational. The addition of electric power would enable the vessel to operate under steam or electricity and vastly expand its capacity to provide public cruises on the Mystic River.

“In order to keep Sabino running on the Mystic River, we have determined that the highest and best solution for the vessel, both as a National Historic Landmark and as a beloved presence on the Mystic River, is to add an alternative means of propulsion to augment its historic steam power plant,” says Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum.

The plan calls for state-of-the-art, batteries, motors, and controls to be installed in parallel with the existing boiler and steam plant. The Museum will retain the ability to run Sabino under steam, but add the capability to run on electric power.

The 1908-built excursion vessel Sabino has been a fixture at Mystic Seaport Museum and on the Mystic River since its arrival in 1973. Built in Maine as a passenger ferry on the Damariscotta and Kennebec Rivers, the boat served in that capacity for nearly two decades and later as a ferry in Casco Bay. It is powered by the same duplex reciprocating steam engine that was original equipment in 1908. In fact, the engine was manufactured downriver from Mystic in nearby Noank. With its nearly silent steam propulsion, a cruise down the Mystic River on Sabino is a connection to the past when small steamboats filled the nation’s coasts and harbors. The boat was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

In partnership with a team of marine engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Museum determined that an electric system could be installed in such a way as to fully maintain the historic operational integrity of the vessel’s original steam power plant. Sabino would continue to operate the steam plant for demonstrations and special events, but operate under electric power for daily passenger cruises. The electric motor would quietly drive the vessel’s original shaft. Batteries would be recharged overnight and between trips. Importantly, this system would provide a smoke- and soot-free operation, greatly reducing the vessel’s environmental impact in terms of carbon emissions. Other benefits include a return to a seven-day per week schedule, and reduced crewing, maintenance, and coaling expenses.

The historic status of Sabino is paramount to the Museum. The historic fabric of the boat will not be altered and the installation of the electric system would be entirely reversible.

“The expectation is the addition of electric propulsion will enable us to increase the boat’s daily passenger capacity and provide more people with the opportunity to get out on the water and enjoy a cruise on the Mystic River on a National Landmark,” says White.

On December 25, 1929, Edward E. Bradley, an industrialist; Carl C. Cutler, a lawyer; and Dr. Charles K. Stillman, a physician; signed the papers incorporating the Marine Historical Association, today known as Mystic Seaport Museum. Their dream: create a dynamic, educational institution to preserve America’s maritime culture–and turn the achievements of a past era into an inspirational force for the future.

Cutler was writing what would become a seminal book on American clipper ships, Greyhounds of the Sea. As he traveled the East Coast doing research, he was appalled to discover how many maritime artifacts were being destroyed. He enlisted Stillman, who happened to be the grandson of local shipbuilder Clark Greenman, and Bradley to collect historical material. They incorporated the Marine Historical Association and began recruiting members and collecting maritime artifacts.

The association was gifted the buildings formerly belonging to the Mystic Manufacturing Company in 1931, turning its brick buildings into exhibit halls. That year, Dr. Stillman gave the Museum its first boat, the sandbagger racing sloop Annie, so that visitors could learn confidence, courage, and skill on the water. After Stillman and Bradley died in 1938, Cutler led the efforts to acquire and save the last surviving whaleship, the Charles W. Morgan. It arrived in November 1941, was placed in a sand berth, and opened for visitors in June 1942. Plans to build a representative seaport began in 1943, with the Shipsmith Shop the first to arrive in 1944.

The training ship Joseph Conrad joined the fleet in 1947 as part of the Mariner Training Program, and with the arrival of the coasting schooner Australia in 1951 and the schooner yacht Brilliant in 1952, the sail-training program expanded. More buildings were installed along the waterfront street, and in 1955, “activists”—now called interpreters—began to work in the exhibits.

In 1947, the Mystic Seaport Museum established a small library to hold its published books and manuscripts, which later serve as the center for the graduate-level Frank C. Munson Memorial Institute of American Maritime History after it was founded in 1955. The expanded G. W. Blunt White Library opened in 1965 and is now housed in the Collections Research Center.

To keep up with the demands of its wooden fleet, Mystic Seaport built the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard in 1973 at the site of the historic Charles Mallory Shipyard. The first major task was to restore the Morgan, an ongoing program that had begun years earlier and included significant structural work. The Morgan was removed from its sand berth in 1974 and hauled out on the Shipyard’s lift dock.

In the 1980s, the Mystic Seaport Museum built new bulkheads to stabilize the waterfront and acquired the Rosenfeld Collection of maritime photography, which numbers close to one million images. Mystic Seaport constructed the Freedom Schooner Amistad in 1998–2000 and opened the Collections Research Center in 2001 to house one of the largest maritime collections available for research in the United States.

The Morgan returned to the Museum’s Shipyard for restoration in 2008 and was relaunched in 2013. The ship embarked on a historic 38th Voyage in 2014—sailing for the first time since 1921.

The Museum then expanded its exhibition space, building the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle in 2015 and adding the Thompson Exhibition Building in 2016. These additions focus the Museum’s formal exhibits at the north end of the complex, providing year-round learning opportunities for visitors.

Mystic Seaport Museum is now 90 years old. We do not know what the next 10 years will bring, but if the journey so far is any indication, great things are in store when we celebrate 100 years in 2029.

Mystic, Conn. (December 17, 2019) — Stephen C. White announced today he plans to retire as President and CEO of Mystic Seaport Museum. White, who has served as President and CEO since 2009, will continue in that role until his successor has been named.

“I’m honored to have worked alongside the talented, passionate, and dedicated staff and volunteers who every day strive to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience,” says White. “I came here with the goal of guiding the institution to reimagine the interchange between maritime heritage and broader contemporary culture. I’m proud of all we have achieved in the last decade and that the Museum is poised to achieve more great things as it enters its 90th year in 2020.”

Under White’s leadership, the Museum strengthened its role as a leader in America’s maritime heritage community while simultaneously adapting to new visions of what a museum must be in the 21st century. It restored and sailed the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan on its 38th Voyage in 2014. The north end of the campus was reconfigured into the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle, a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the Museum’s indoor exhibition spaces, which included the construction of the award-winning Thompson Exhibition Building. The Museum is poised to conclude funding of its $6-million Era of Exhibitions campaign. The campaign was launched in 2017 to fund exhibitions of world-class quality, innovation, and scholarship such as the present show J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors from Tate, the most comprehensive collection of Turner watercolors ever displayed in this country.

White served as the president of the International Congress of Maritime Museums from 2015 to 2019, and Gov. Dannel Malloy named White Connecticut’s Tourism Leader of the Year in 2015.

“Steve’s impact on Mystic Seaport Museum is best seen in the strong sense of community he fostered, both inside the Museum and in its external relationships with the world at large,” says Michael S. Hudner, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “We are grateful for his steady, confident leadership and for the zeal and imagination with which he advanced the Museum’s mission.”

The Board of Trustees of Mystic Seaport Museum will establish a search committee headed by former Board chairman Barclay Collins in January 2020 to find White’s successor.