Across the street is the Seaman's Bethel, the original whaling era chapel that Melville visited. The sermon he heard inspired his Father Mapple section of Moby-Dick. (Melville sailed from the Fairhaven side of our harbor aboard the whaleship Acushnet on January 3, 1841.)
The wharf Melville sailed from, at the foot of Center Street, is three blocks from my office at 43 Center Street.
I've met Kat and Harry and Stef, oh my!
(And Diana, Richard, nbcatlover, Doug Parkhurst and Marilou, Shelley, "Cemetery" Jeff, Nadzieja, kfactor, Barbara, JoAnne, Michael, Katrina and my 255 character limit is up.)
My first trip to Fall River, New Bedford, and Fairhaven was because of a wedding at the Seaman's Bethel. My mother and I went through the Whaling Museim after the wedding. I loved the whaling ship they had recontructed inside the building. I think I would have liked sailing.
I would love to visit the Seamen's Bethel, and see the wharves. Perhaps a day trip is in order...(maybe I'll get another tattoo while I'm there) I spent some time meandering around Gloucester this summer as well, and I used to live in Salem, near the Custom House.
Thanks for the info!
kash
"It seemed friendly enough, but it had sharp claws and a great many teeth. Alice thought it best to treat it with respect"
Lewis Carroll
The Frida Kahlo tattoo took six hours in all, Kat-done in two sesssions. The first was just the outline, that took two hours. I waited two weeks for it to completely heal, then went back for the color, that took four hours (and it didn't hurt)
However, in a couple of hours I am going into oral surgery to have a small procedure. That will probably be a more 'deeply' moving experience. Wish me luck!
kash
"It seemed friendly enough, but it had sharp claws and a great many teeth. Alice thought it best to treat it with respect"
Lewis Carroll
They featured the whaling museum on one of the Antique Roadshows a few months back. They showed the beautiful scrimshaw items that are worth a lot of money. I guess they can only be made out of a whale's tusks, and it's illegal nowadays to harvest
Somewhere on here I posted about a recent theft of a harpoon and I think tusks. That's low - stealing anything really, but from a museum that shares their stuff with everybody. I was surprised they didn't take the scrimshaw.
Good Luck on your oral surgery, Kash! You will still be cute, even if you have some swelling. You guys gotta see Kash. She is so cute!
The surgery went well-it was a small fibroma on the inside of my mouth that is a quite common condition.
As I was waiting for the novacaine to kick in, all I could think was, "I wonder how Lizzie did at the dentists?"
Who was her dentist? She must have had the best. I have a book of old old pictures of Boston (from Lizzie's time) and there's a dentists office in one building that proclaimed, "Teeth Extracted Painlessly" Remarkable. However, it was in Scolly Square...
3 Stitches and Puffy. (kash)
"It seemed friendly enough, but it had sharp claws and a great many teeth. Alice thought it best to treat it with respect"
Lewis Carroll
I remember standing on the whaling vessel they had in the museum...imagining the wind and sea spray hitting my face. It seemed adventurous. However the quarters on the vessel were a bit on the small side. But if you had been on a boat like that...your thoughts would have been about whales...not sleep.
I have a small tattoo on the outside of my right leg, just above my ankle. It's a momma and baby dolphin. The mamma is blue and the baby is pink. It's based on the Wyland sculpture "Ocean Child". It took me 10 years to 'decide' on what I wanted...I knew it would be forever, so I figured I'd better damn well pick something I would love having that long. It was my birthday present to me for my 34th birthday. 10 years later...I am still happy with it.
That would be really appropriate, Kash- paw prints on my back!
I am such a sucker for those Koorey cats which I inherited.
Luckily I also was given the money to care for them. They are all gone now but for the two I picked up around the neighborhood (sisters).
Very nice tattoo!!
Thank you for your dolphins, too, Tracy, since I didn't get to meet you in person this summer!
I am very much against tatoos or peircings and
forbid my son to get into that. The very day he
turned 18 guess what he did? Message to mothers
is keep your mouth shut I guess and maybe they
won't do it.
I went to the whaling museum and Seamens Bethel this past Sept and enjoyed both thoroughly! At some public libraries up there you can get a free pass to the museum.
Yes, in Jan. 1977. I love the historic area...the cobblestones and gas lamps. But I am phobicly afraid that it will explode again.
The link below tells of the explosion and fire that almost destroyed the whaling museum.
Hate to tell ya, Steve, but a gas main could explode just about anywhere at just about any time.
And they're kinda like lightning, too. What are the chances of that happening again? Especially since they put in all new gas mains.
To avoid the Whaling Museum because more than thirty years ago it lost some windows during a freak accident is rather phobic. In fact, I've never before heard anyone say anything about fearing lower downtown in all the years since.
I worked at Vining Press on Bethel Street a block from the museum in 1977 and I and the thousands of people who worked in and around downtown were going about their regular business within a very short time.
I've met Kat and Harry and Stef, oh my!
(And Diana, Richard, nbcatlover, Doug Parkhurst and Marilou, Shelley, "Cemetery" Jeff, Nadzieja, kfactor, Barbara, JoAnne, Michael, Katrina and my 255 character limit is up.)
I never said anyone else should avoid it, I just said I avoided it. I did say I was phobic about it...can't explain it because as far as I know thats kind of the definition of a phobia....an irrational fear. I just never returned to that area after the explosions and fires, but thats just me.
In memory of....Laddie Miller, Royal Nelson and Donald Stewart, Lizzie Borden's dogs. "Sleeping Awhile."
I never think about gas mains exploding- but now I do, SteveS!
I was on Beacon Street in Boston at Cleveland Circle one night (1970) with a group of friends, and the laundra-mat across the street just up-and-exploded out of the blue! We were mesmerized! Rooted to the spot. Dazed and confused- whatever~ It was traumatic.