Category: News

On Thursday morning, June 4, the Museum’s eastern-rig dragger Roann departed Mystic Seaport for Cape May, N.J. where she will participate in the Cape May Port Commercial Fishing Festival Saturday and Sunday, June 6-7. Captain Al Burnett and staff members Joe Zaraschi and Walter Ansel, along with volunteers Dick Burke, Jim Fox, George Hinteregger, and Rod Cook, are crew aboard the vessel and plan to arrive in Cape May Friday afternoon.

Hosted by the Cape May Maritime Museum and Education Center and the Cold Spring Fish & Supply Company, the inaugural festival highlights the area’s commercial fishing industry and rich maritime heritage. The festival will be based in the Schellenger’s Landing area and participating exhibitors include the Coast Guard, NOAA, Rutgers University, Garden State Seafood Association, Cold Spring Fish & Supply, Lund’s FIsheries, Atlantic Cape Fisheries, and Snow’s Bumble Bee. Demonstrations, talks, and special activities will be hosted throughout the weekend and visitors are invited to board Roann. The vessel will be open to the public from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.

Roann is scheduled to depart Cape May for Mystic Seaport Sunday evening.

About Roann

Built in 1947, Roann is one of the last surviving examples of the fishing vessels that replaced sailing schooners like the Museum’s L.A. Dunton. The eastern-rig draggers originated in the 1920s; indeed, Thomas McManus, who designed the Dunton, was influential in their development. Draggers completed the revolutionary advance from sail to engine, and from hooks to nets, in New England fishing technology. Powered by a diesel engine, and dragging a large conical fishnet called an otter trawl along the seabed, Roann and her crew of three could catch cod and haddock twice as fast as dorymen from a vessel like the Dunton could with their baited hooks. Draggers were also the first to catch large quantities of flounder.

Roann has been a Museum exhibit at Mystic Seaport since her arrival in 1997. Most recently she played an instrumental role as a support vessel during the Charles W. Morgan‘s historic 38th Voyage in 2014.

Contractors have completed demolition work on the north end of the grounds and now the focus of the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle project is final site preparation and the installation of new infrastructure in advance of construction.

A key accomplishment in May was the drilling of 20 465-foot deep wells for a geothermal heating and cooling system that will support the environment conditions inside the new Thompson Exhibition Building.

Contractors are also working on installation of new electrical, telecom, and water infrastructure. The last includes an extensive storm water containment and filtration system to process runoff before it reaches the Mystic River.

Plans call for the Thompson Building foundation to be poured in July and the public spaces in the Quad should open in July with some limitations until the grass sod has taken root.

Although construction has closed the North Entrance, Latitude 41° Restaurant is open on its normal summer schedule and a new Center Entrance will open on June 20 next to the administration building at 75 Greenmanville Avenue. Members and visitors will be able to enter and conduct all transactions at that entrance. For safety reasons, everyone is reminded to use the traffic-light crosswalks to cross Greenmanville Ave.

New and Improved Exhibits

On June 20, “Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers” will open on the first floor of the Stillman Building. This 4,400 square-foot exhibit is a fresh take on the history of American whaling and will combine Museum artifacts, artwork, audiovisual elements, and interactive displays to facilitate an understanding of the forces that initially drove the whaling industry, humankind’s changing perceptions of whales, and the latest research into whale-human interactions. The exhibit will also incorporate elements from the Charles W. Morgan‘s 38th Voyage last summer.

In addition, the Figureheads exhibit in the Wendell Building will reopen after a refurbishment that includes enhanced lighting and the Benjamin F. Packard Ship’s Cabin will reopen on the second floor of the Stillman Building. The Packard Cabin was relocated from the brick outbuilding that was one of the structures razed to make way for the McGraw Quad.

Improvements to the R.J. Schaefer Building have been completed in advance of the “Ships, Clocks & Stars” exhibit that will open on September 19. The award-winning exhibit is the epic story of humankind’s quest to solve the riddle of measuring longitude at sea. Produced by the National Maritime Museum in London, Mystic Seaport is one of just four museums worldwide to host this exhibit.

The McGraw Gallery Quadrangle is a major undertaking by Mystic Seaport to transform the north end of the Museum to greatly enhance the quality of exhibition space and offer a more robust year-round experience for visitors. The distinctive Quad will mesh existing buildings and grounds with the new Thompson Exhibition Building, a 14,000 square-foot structure that will house exemplary exhibition facilities, the latest technologies, and flexible spaces to engage with visitors and serve their diverse interests.

The project is scheduled for completion in fall 2016 with the opening of the Thompson Building.

Mayflower II, the reproduction of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Massachusetts in 1620, departed Mystic Seaport this morning to return to her homeport of Plymouth, MA. The journey is expected to take two days with the ship stopping overnight at State Pier in New Bedford, after which she will pass through the Cape Cod Canal and arrive in Plymouth sometime in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 20.

As Mayflower II has no engine, she is being towed by the tug Jaguar.

The ship has been at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport since last December, where she has been undergoing the first phase of a multi-year restoration to prepare her for the 400th Anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival in 2020. Plimoth Plantation, the ship’s owner, wants to return her to the same condition she was in when she was sailed over from the United Kingdom in 1957. Mayflower II was a gift to the American people to commemorate the spirit of collaboration between the two countries during World War II.

“The key goal for this phase of the project was to determine the scope of work and come up with a detailed plan for the ship’s restoration that both addresses the ship’s needs and does so on a schedule that works for Plimoth Plantation,” said Dana Hewson, Mystic Seaport Vice President for Watercraft Preservation and Programs.

The ship was hauled out of the water and had her ballast removed to enable a complete marine survey of the hull. The work was carried out by Paul Haley of Capt. G.W. Full & Associates, who did similar survey work for the Mystic Seaport whaleship Charles W. Morgan during her restoration.

In addition to the survey, shipwrights and Plimoth crew members were able to attend to a number of important tasks, including plank replacement, fresh caulking of the hull and decks, and a new paint job. Patterns were taken of structural members that need to be replaced to enable Mystic Seaport shipwrights to prefabricate parts while the ship is in Plymouth over the summer.

The ship is expected to return to Mystic Seaport in December following Thanksgiving.

“This has been a great project for both museums,” added Hewson. “Both organizations bring different strengths to the table and we are learning a lot from each other.”

The State of Connecticut today named Mystic Seaport President Steve White the 2015 Tourism Leader of the Year. The award honors an individual who has made a singular contribution to the advancement of the tourism industry in Connecticut.

“One word captures the essence of this leader and that is vision,” said Arthur Diedrick, chairman of the state’s Tourism Advisory Board, who presented the award to White at the annual Connecticut Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Hartford. When faced with the challenges of the recent recession, “rather than retreat he advanced the organization with a truly revolutionary vision.”

White was recognized for the Museum’s accomplishments since he assumed the position of president in 2009, most notably the restoration and 2014 38th Voyage of the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, a project that garnered national and international attention. Over the course of two months, the National Historic Landmark vessel sailed from Connecticut to six ports in southern New England drawing tens of thousands of visitors and generating awareness of the importance of maritime heritage and promoting the state as a tourism destination to a worldwide audience.

White was also acknowledged for the leadership role he and Mystic Seaport play in regional collaboration efforts.  A charter member of the Greater Mystic Visitors Bureau, the Museum participates in numerous successful partnerships and promotions with the local and regional business community, including a joint pass, the Mystic Pass (“Sea Everything”), with the Mystic Aquarium, local businesses, and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum that is a very successful tool to drive sales at multiple points.

Additionally, Mystic Seaport has just embarked on a $15 million capital investment in the construction of a new exhibition building and campus enhancements that will greatly add to the Museum’s ability to present and host world-quality exhibits that will draw additional visitation to the region year-round.

“I am honored to accept this award, but I do so on behalf of our talented, dedicated staff who present the Museum to the public in a most compelling and memorable manner, and for the greater Mystic community who strive to make our corner of the state one of the great destinations in New England,” said White.

The annual award is open to any leader of a travel- or tourism-related organization headquartered in Connecticut.

According to a recent study released by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, the tourism industry supports more than 118,000 jobs statewide—including 80,000 direct jobs— representing 5.3 percent of all employment in the state.

The McGraw Gallery Quadrangle project is entering a significant new phase as the contractor has almost completed demolition work and site preparation is underway for the construction of the Thompson Exhibition Building and the quadrangle landscaping.

The plan called for the G.W. Blunt White Building, the North Boat Shed, and the brick outbuilding that formerly housed the Benjamin F. Packard Ship’s Cabin to be razed. The Packard Cabin and the Cruising Club of America (CCA) exhibit that was on the first floor of Blunt White are both being relocated to the Stillman Building. The CCA exhibit, “The Adventurous Use of the Sea“, has also been reproduced as an online exhibit.

The McGraw Gallery Quadrangle is a major undertaking by Mystic Seaport to transform the north end of the Museum to greatly enhance the quality of exhibition space and offer a more robust year-round experience for visitors. The distinctive Quad will mesh existing buildings and grounds with the new exhibition building. Named for the late Donald C. McGraw, a longtime Mystic Seaport supporter and passionate advocate for the collection and preservation of maritime artifacts, the Quad seeks to unify the components of the north end of the Museum by focusing on their common role as formal exhibition galleries. The Quad’s cornerstone, the 14,000 square-foot Thompson Exhibition Building, named for the late trustee, Wade Thompson, and designed by the renowned Connecticut firm Centerbrook Architects and Planners, will house exemplary exhibition facilities, the latest technologies, and flexible spaces to engage with visitors and serve their diverse interests.

With demolition complete, work will focus on the drilling of 20 465-foot deep wells for a geothermal heating and cooling system, the installation of new electrical, telecom, and water infrastructure, and additional site preparation in advance of pouring the foundation for the Thompson Building. The contractor will also address the Quad landscaping with an intended completion and opening to the public early this summer.

“The project is moving along very smoothly despite a challenging winter in terms of snow and work conditions, and we are very excited to move from the demolition phase to actual construction of the new Thompson Building and Quad,” said Ken Wilson, director of facilities at Mystic Seaport.

In addition to the new construction, most of the existing exhibit galleries around the Quad are receiving upgrades and new exhibits. This June “Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers” will open on the first floor of the Stillman Building. This 4,400 square-foot exhibit is a fresh take on the history of American whaling and will combine Museum artifacts, artwork, audiovisual elements, and interactive displays to facilitate an understanding of the forces that initially drove the whaling industry, humankind’s changing perceptions of whales, and the latest research into whale-human interactions. The exhibit will also incorporate elements from the Charles W. Morgan‘s 38th Voyage last summer.

In September, “Ships, Clocks & Stars — The Quest for Longitude” will open in the R.J. Schaefer Building. This award winning exhibit, produced by the National Maritime Museum in London, tells the story of humankind’s epic effort to solve the riddle of determining longitude, ultimately accomplished by John Harrison’s achievement of building the perfect clock. The exhibit has 148 artifacts, art objects, and working replicas of the original Harrison chronometers–including the actual case of his H4 chronometer that won the coveted Longitude Prize, the X-Prize of the 18th century. Mystic Seaport is just one of three museums worldwide selected to host the exhibit outside the United Kingdom.

The project is scheduled for completion in fall 2016 with the opening of the Thompson Building.