Whaling Museum, Part 3

There's no denying that there was some amazing scrimshaw work done on bones and teeth.

Additional products that once used whale oil.

Pie wheels and utensils

Some with beautiful inlay.

All that detail and scroll work done by hand, without a dremel or any other power tool!  AMAZING!

I liked this painting of a sperm whale crunching down on a boat with sailors.  Reminded me of Moby Dick.

I should have paid attention to the info on what these are.  They are really cool but no idea what they are.
UPDATE:  They are called yarn winders.

Beautifully crafted miniature ships.

And speaking of Moby.....

Captain Ahab of the Pequod!  

Queequeg on the left

 I loved this paper cutting.

And also this clock was wicked cool.  Those ships in the scene underneath the dial rocked back and forth with each 'tick tock'.  

Like I needed anymore souvenirs besides postcards, but I have always wanted a deck prism and they had small, affordable ones.  I couldn't resist the adorable glass whale or that 'Life is a Journey' compass.  And I also knew I'd kick myself if I walked out without buying a Boat in a Bottle kit.  

I hope you enjoyed my travels in Southeastern Massachusetts!

Whaling Museum, Part 2

OH MY GOD! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!   There it was.  The trunk that I hadn't seen in 41 years and often wondered if I'd dreamt it.

It was really hard to shoot the items inside the case but it was really fascinating to see them.  I have no idea if Manoel Mendonca is related to me or not, but it's a very unusual last name.

He was born in the Azores and I believe my paternal family was from the Canary Islands.  Perhaps way back there is a common relative when the family lived in Portugal.  He painted it and even kind of collaged it with the cutouts of things from books. 

I guess that's Manoel and his wife.  She's a bit....mannish.  

Cannot believe I got to see this again!!!

Upstairs above the ship was this little room with a telescope so I looked inside to see a film of a whale swimming in front of a ship.  That was really neat.  

This may be the only whale tail pic I ever take....although I do hope to go on a whale watch this summer.

More cool art and exhibits.  So much that it was hard not to shoot pics of everything.

I was pleased to see that the museum addressed whaling history in other regions of the world, like the Pacific Northwest.  While everyone up there is familiar with the Native American and First Nations tribal history of whaling, commercial whaling isn't really discussed.  I never thought about it when I lived up there either.

This is a Tlingit dance blanket from Alaska.

I also loved these 3D paintings too.  The detail is great.

Looooved these Polynesian abalone shells!

Whaling Museum, Part 1

As mentioned before, there is a long history of whaling in this region.  Back in the 70s, classes and Camp Fire Girls/Boy Scouts troupes were often visited by a whaling historian in town named Colonel Clark.  He'd bring whale teeth & scrimshaw in to show us, and there was a big whale jawbone in front of his house.  We were also shown films about it, I guess to instill in us a sense of pride at our rich seafaring history.  I, on the other hand, was horrified by the graphic kills and carcass butchering.  Hor.Ri.Fied.  Blubber being cut in long strips, sailers ankle deep in blood and guts, oil being harvested out of sperm whale heads.  Good god it was awful.  Then finding out that they were just about hunted to extinction made me even sicker.  We were taken to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in the 3rd grade, in 1973.  I don't really remember much about the trip, except for my teacher pulling me aside to show me an old trunk with the last name 'Mendonca'.  I remember saying to her, 'But my name has a Z' and she said, 'Yes I know, but this is the way it was spelled in Portuguese and that squiggle under the 'c' gives it the 'z' sound.'  I never forgot it and from time to time over the years I thought about how cool it would be if I could find it again.  Well, that would mean another trip to the Whaling Museum and I was kinda reluctant to subject myself to the gore I remember from the 1970s.  I really was on the fence about going inside, but I decided to and boy am I glad I did.  

When I bought my admission, I asked the woman if she knew of a trunk with the Mendonca name on it.  She said she didn't offhand, but that they were moving a bunch of the trunks on exhibit into storage so she'd have to ask a docent and let me know.

Gone are the days of the gory depictions of the hunts.  It's an unfortunate part of our history, and I am pleased to see that it's being given a more regretful and respectful treatment.  The pictures, paintings, sculptures, etc. are quite nice to look at.  Yes there were a few pictures that showed the hunting but for the most part, it was fine.

This beadwork was incredible.

I just love ship-and-iceberg pictures!

Very huge picture of downtown New Bedford in the 1800s.

The emphasis is now on conservation.  This was an exhibit of how bad the garbage, plastic bits and nets are harming the fragile marine ecosystem.

The human skeleton is for scale, although I assume it's plastic whereas the whale one is real.

This was a pretty cool room....it had a small scale model of a whaling ship.

I liked how they had a photograph and then a 3D model.

Loved this crow's nest pic and model.

This was a neat sculpture too.

Wait....what's that next to the ship?