Scrimshaw Treasure? Think again....

While visiting a flea market or a small antiques shop off in the middle of nowhere, you come across a hidden treasure...an old walrus tusk with the image of a whaling scene on it and the name of a famous whaling ship, the CHARLES W. MORGAN...you grab for your wallet, shell out your cash and call Mystic Seaport to tell them you've found a treasure that you are sure they will want....unfortunately, they already have about a dozen of the same piece! How could this be? Yours is the original, so how did they get a copy? Well, the answer is easy...Fakeshaw, as it has been termed.

Over the years a number of companies have created pieces of "scrimshaw" by forming molds that resemble walrus tusks or sperm whale teeth and embedding information in them to make them look and feel like real scrimshaw. Unless you have a piece of real scrimshaw in your hand with which to compare it, the fake can seem quite authentic.

Pictured here is a MORGAN tusk, showing both sides, and cut in pieces to show that it is indeed plastic..so, if you find one of these pieces, you may still want to buy it to decorate your home, but don't expect any collectors or Museums to come knocking at your door...For more information on fakeshaw, visit the New Bedford Whaling Museum's webpage on the subject where you can find numerous pieces described.
Visit the following page. http://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/databases/fakeshaw

Flying the Colors

Flying the Colors is Mystic Seaport's newest book about the unseen treasures of nineteenth-century American Marine Art.


America has a long and distinguished history of notable marine art and artists such as James Buttersworth, Robert Salmon, and Fitz Henry Lane, whose special genius was to put down on canvas truly memorable representations of such marine themes as the sailing ships and yachts that plied oceanic waters. Often some of the best of these paintings have not been readily accessible to the general public. Now a compendium of those marvelous paintings have been compiled in "Flying The Colors: The Unseen Treasures Of Nineteenth-Century American Marine Art" by the team of Alan Granby and Janice Hyland. Beautiful images flawless reproduced in full color are enhanced with an informative essay by Stuart M. Frank. Readers are also provided with succinct biographical descriptions of the artists whose works are represented. The result is a coffee-table art book that is a pure delight to browse through and which is unrestrainedly recommended for personal, academic, and community library American Art History reference collections.

Midwest Book Reviews

New Book on J.E. Buttersworth

Mystic Seaport recently published a 2nd edition of Rudolph J. Schaefer's comprehensive book, J. E. Buttersworth: 19th-Century Marine Painter. With the advice of Janet Schaefer, the new volume includes the details of Buttersworth's life, full-color reproductions of more than 150 works, and a listing of nearly 1,200 known Buttersworth paintings.

The son of a British marine painter, James E. Buttersworth (1817-1894) was among the most prolific marine artists of the nineteenth century. His clipper ship views many of which were published as popular lithographs by N. Currier and his America's Cup race paintings are widely respected for their combination of artistic and documentary qualities. Like his contemporary "luminist" and Hudson River School artists, Buttersworth excelled in the dramatic renderings of sea and sky, elevating the precisely detailed renderings of ships beyond document to art. The completely revised image section, with new or augmented captions, contains more than 200 examples of Buttersworth's work illustrated in full color, more than half of which were not included in the first edition.

New Bedford Panorama Comes to Mystic Seaport

The New Bedford Whaling Museum recently brought a priceless object to Mystic Seaport for temporary storage while architectural work is being done at the Whaling Museum. Caleb Purrington's and Benjamin Russell's "Panorama of a Whaling Voyage Round the Worls" is being housed in the Collections research Center at Mystic Seaport until such time as new space is available at the NBWM.

James Russell, the President of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, stated that he was extremely happy with the arrangement as, he noted, "There are many ties that bind Mystic Seaport and the New Bedford Whaling Museum, from shared goals, values and subject matter, to a great interest in the restoration of the CHARLES W. MORGAN. Close cooperation between the museums continues to grow and the New Bedford Whaling Museum is very grateful to Mystic Seaport for storing this masterpiece.....collection storage at Mystic Seaport is second to none and we wanted this in the best and safest place possible until restoration could become a reality."

According to Mary Jean Blasdale's "Artists of New Bedford" the panorama was created by the two artists in 1848 after Russell had completed a whaling voyage and he wanted to document it in images. The panorama is nearly 1,300 feet in length and painted on a canvas eight and one half feet high. It is currently stored on eight separate rolls that are ten feet long. The panorama traveled the United States in the 19th century and, like other panoramas of the time, served as a form of entertainment "similar to the motion picture travelogue of later days," as noted by Blasdale.

For more information on panoramas in general, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Panorama

The accompanying picture is one frame of the panel and the short video shows the placement of one roll of the panorama into its new temporary storage area.

New Maritime Journal!!!!

Coriolis, a prevailing global force that shapes human maritime experience is also the name of the new peer-reviewed Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime Studies. Volume 1, Number 1 includes an introduction by John Hattendorf , an article on Hawaii's historical whaling economy as revealed through regulation, and the study of colonial household goods as a means to understand local fisheries.

The articles are well-documented, thoroughly enjoyable, and make valuable contributions to the field of Maritime Studies. Coriolis is published in association with the National Maritime Digital Library.

Shooting for TUGS

In my near 3 years of working at MYSTIC SEAPORT I have been granted many a great opportunity. Some of the most exciting include meeting world class sailor Gary Jobson, installing equipment for the amazing Object theater in last year's FROZEN IN exhibit, and of course access to our countless tapes of priceless maritime footage within our secure vault. However, I can honestly say, shooting for the new TUGS exhibit coming in May has given me some of the coolest experiences in my life.

Fall of Last year brought myself and my co-worker Dan Harvison to the harbors of New York City to shoot the annual Tug Games that take place there. He on a historic tug boat, myself on a chase boat, we were both well equipped with some spiffy High Definition cameras!! My were they ever a joy to work with. These cameras not only were lighter and easier to maneuver than anything we've ever worked with previously, but the picture is absolutely indescribable!

Sitting on chase boat I watched and filmed in awe as a river full of Tug boats of all sizes and models raced and frolicked around me. The collective wake of the opening race was massive, nearly toppling me over on the deck. Once the race was over, the fun continued all at once. Some boats move into the dock for a line tossing contest, attempting to lasso the dock brace with a rope the thickness of my arm...some even bigger! Meanwhile, out further into the water, some boats had nose-to-nose contests. Each tug pushing against each other in a sort of "Tug" of war, only in reverse. Surprisingly, even the smaller tugs seemed to hold their own against the massive barge tugs in these contests of brute force.

A few months later, we again found ourselves filming for TUGS with our friends the High Definition cameras. This time, we were aboard a brand spanking new ATB Tug boat. This tug was absolutely massive, it's cockpit rising nearly 80 feet off the water. We were the guests of honor as the captain and crew gave us a full tour and cruised out into open water for a brief, but extremely memorable sea trial. I can't seem to put into words how it feels to be on a ship this massive that can spin nearly in place!

Touring the engine room was like visiting the tug straight off the assembly line. Everything was spotless and shone from the lights above. In some areas, crewmen and engineers worked with various tools making final adjustments before the Tug could be handed off to it's owner.

By far the most amazing thing out of all of these was walking on top of a steel barge while still under construction. We had to be at least the same height as the tug cockpit, the unfinished behemoth being held up only by a few supports allowing work to continue underneath. All around us welders were applying their trade, blinding sparks fixing new plates into place. At one point we were told to be careful where we pointed the camera, for right next door to the manufacturing facility was non other than GENERAL DYNAMICS.

Sadly, TUGS is in post production, and all adventures have long been had and passed. Fortunately a new adventure still awaits us...watching the finished programs in sparkling High Definition!!!

Charles G. Davis Model: The LEXINGTON

In issue two of NAUTICAL QUARTERLY back in 1978, Weston Farmer said of Charles G. Davis' models that were found in "important maritime" museums, "These were the masterpieces of a God-given talent that was literally stunning." Davis was, in turn, a sailor, a naval architect, an engineer, an artist, a writer and more. No wonder Farmer described him as a "Leonardo of the boat-design game." In addition to editing MOTOR BOAT magazine for a number of years, Davis also wrote numerous books on yacht design, sailing and more. One of his books, "The Built-Up Ship Model", written in 1933, was a classic book for modelers, teaching them how to build a model as if building an actual ship. Just recently, through a generous gift, the museum became the proud owner of the brig LEXINGTON, the model used as basis for the book. The LEXINGTON was one of the first private vessels taken into the fledgling U.S. Navy and had her name changed to honor the town where the first battle of the Revolution took place.

The picture shows some of the extraordinary detail of the model, including the workmanship on the ship's boat. The model will spend a couple months in our CO2 chamber to guarantee that no living thing is harming the model in any way before it makes its way back into its case for potential display in the near future.

Mystic Seaport is proud to add the LEXINGTON to its wealth of C.G. Davis material, including other models in the collection, but also a sizable gathering of his plans and manuscript material, including many of the drawings that accompanied his writings.