This Badger Doesn't Bite

When the five-masted schooner JENNIE R. DUBOIS was launched in February of 1902, she became the largest vessel ever built on the Mystic River. 249 feet long and 2,237 tons, she was built by the Holmes Shipbuilding Company and named for the wife of Rhode Island judge E.C. Dubois. She was built for the lumber and coal-carrying trades and proved to be too large for the Mystic River, having become stuck in the mud when she was launched. Hopefully the owner of the $100,000 vessel carried enough insurance because the DUBOIS was lost only a year and a half later in September of 1903 after being run down in the fog near Block Island by a German steamship while carrying a load of coal. She became a hazard to navigation and was dynamited to guarantee safe passage in the area. Local historian Carol Kimball wrote a nice article for The Day in 2002 on the construction and demise of the DUBOIS. The schooner was rediscovered 104 years later in 2007 by a group of local divers and was once again in the news.

JENNIE R. DUBOIS by S.F.M. Badger (MSM acc. # 2014.70.1)

This painting of the JENNIE R. DUBOIS is a recent gift to the Museum and joins another painting of the DUBOIS in the Museum’s possession (accession number 1957.10), both by the same artist, S.F.M. Badger. Solon Francis Montecello Badger was born in Charlestown,  Massachusetts in 1873 and died as a relatively young man in 1919. Having studied under William P. Stubbs in his youth, Badger’s style is very reminiscent of Stubbs’ work. Mystic Seaport is very happy that the donors of the painting decided to keep it in the Mystic area where it will be truly appreciated.

A Trip to Remember

The CHARLES W. MORGAN, and everyone associated with her, had a hectic and momentous summer of 2014. When the MORGAN  returned home to Mystic Seaport in August, it was after a successful cruise that saw her sail to New London, Newport, Vineyard Haven, New Bedford, Provincetown, Stellwagen Bank, Boston and the Cape Cod Canal. While two of the most memorable events would be her historic return to her home port of New Bedford and her sail on Stellwagen Bank where she sailed with whales for the first time in nearly a hundred years, her passage to New London from Mystic will be one remembered by thousands. As she left Mystic Seaport in mid-May and headed down river through the town’s famous bascule bridge, local marine artist Russ Kramer caught the moment in an ink drawing on an envelope which he then had canceled at the local post office, commemorating the event in fine fashion. Cheering throngs lined the river from Mystic to Noank before she headed out into the Sound to make her way to New London for her final fitting out and sea trials prior to heading off on her historic journey.

Russ Kramer is a well-known, talented marine artist with a studio in Mystic. He is currently the president of the American Society of Marine Artists. You can view some of his work at http://www.russkramer.com/. His gift of the illustrated envelope is one of many MORGAN-related pieces that have made their way to us in 2014.