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Member Survey and Evening Events Summer Interns Tell an Inclusive Story Juneteenth DONOR IMPACT The CEE Changes Lives
The CEE Changes Lives
The Museum’s new Center for Experiential Education (CEE) strives “to engage under-resourced youth in experiential maritime education anchored in positive youth development to help them enhance their social, emotional, and leadership skills.” Through CEE programming, students build resilience and develop essential skills such as leadership, communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking through team projects in boat-building, sailing and powerboat operation, astronomy and navigation, and becoming stewards of our waters through marine science. The Maritime Adventure Program (MAP) is a more intensive component of CEE. The inaugural pilot MAP cohort launched with nine high school students affiliated with New London Youth Affairs (NLYA) this past spring. Programming promotes teambuilding and leadership skills through a curriculum that includes a new challenge course, rowing, marine carpentry, and sailing. Twelve students from New London Youth Affairs, including some of the members of the pilot youth cohort, worked this summer at the Museum through the summer youth employment pipeline that is an integral component of CEE. Two students who participated in the spring MAP and worked at the Museum this summer spoke about their experience. A.M. is a rising high school sophomore who has spent much of her youth on and near the waters of Connecticut and North Carolina. With an interest in marine sciences, having the opportunity to join the Mystic Seaport Museum Maritime Adventure Program has been an exciting adventure for A.M. She describes the structure of the program as one that brings people with different backgrounds together in a respectful, encouraging environment that promotes teamwork rather than competition. A.M. spent five days onboard Brilliant and describes the experience as “life-changing.” She admitted that she probably would have been afraid to try sailing a boat on the open ocean for a week with 11 strangers, because “meeting new people has always been scary since you don’t know if they’re going to like you or how they’re going to treat you.” But, being part of the Center for Experiential Education, where people are caring and “don’t talk to me like I’m incompetent,” gave her the self-confidence to try something new. K.C. is also a rising high school sophomore who participated in MAP through the New London Youth Affairs partnership. K.C. has a wide range of interests in school, but interacting with strangers has always been difficult for her. However, after several months of participating in MAP, she feels she has more confidence and better communication and negotiation skills. She credits that transformation to the hands-on activities, group projects, variety of opportunities to learn something new, and the general feeling of being supported as part of a team in MAP. She noted that this is an opportunity that wasn’t necessarily available to her: “I might not have had the chance to work here because I might not have known there was anything here that would interest me.” She also shared, “There are many people who are very grateful from New London Youth Affairs that they’re able to come here.” A.M. and K.C. have learned skills such as paint removal, painting, varnishing, boat repair, knot tying, rowing, and sailing, but it’s the soft skills in self-confidence, leadership, communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking that they recognize as the most impactful. A.M. shared that she now has a life goal of buying a sailboat and one day sailing around the world thanks to the MAP opportunity that “opened my eyes to experiences unimagined.” K.C. is looking forward to participating more confidently in the environment club in school and excitedly described the club’s goal of building a city garden in Groton that will be used to explain environmental issues and what individuals can do to address those issues. Their experience and growth are shining examples of what is made possible by the generous support of our members and donors to the Museum. Thank you!
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Students in the Maritime Adventure Program learning about boats and marine carpentry.
/11 The MAP opportunity
HENRY B. DU PONT PRESERVATION SHIPYARD
HENRY B. DU PONT PRESERVATION
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
“It is the very heart of this community.”
- Museum Member
THIS PAGE: Kalmar Nyckel, hauled on our Shiplift. This vessel is a modern re-creation of the 17th-century Swedish vessel that carried the first settlers to what is now Delaware in 1634. In our new role the Shipyard has become the shipyard of choice for many such vessels seeking infrastructure and skills for inspection, maintenance, and repair.
PREVIOUS PAGE: Our Noank Fish and Lobster boat Star, built by Robert Whittaker in 1950 to a design typical of the era, in the Main Shop for restoration. Star was originally acquired as a Shipyard work boat but is now considered part of our historic collection. It is still powered by its original Lathrop engine. (1976.231)
The Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard: A Retrospective of Fifty Years
By Quentin Snediker, Clark Senior Curator for Watercraft
(Left) Shipwrights Basil Tuplin and Roger Hambidge “getting out” a plank for the Charles W. Morgan during the topside rebuild in 1980. (Second from Left) National Historic Landmark steamboat Sabino being “skid” into the Main Shop on greased planks for extensive restoration in 1978. (Third from Left) Unstepping masts of the Charles W. Morgan in January 1974 prior to being freed from the sand berth where it had been since 1941. The Morgan has been afloat since that time and completed a 38th Voyage in 2014. The Charles W. Morgan was named a National Historic Landmark in 1967. (Second from Right) Noank sloop Emma C. Berry undergoing restoration in 1971 at what is now known as Siegel Point, former site of the George Greenman Shipyard. (Right) Stern view of the Emma C. Berry nearing the end of this restoration. Built in 1866 at the R. & J. Palmer yard in Noank, this vessel was named a National Historic Landmark in 1994.
The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport Museum, the first shipyard built specifically for preservation in the United States, and possibly the world, marking a new era in maritime preservation. Watercraft preservation at the Museum began with the acquisition of our first vessel, the sandbagger Annie, in 1931. In these early years, local boat builders were contracted to maintain the small but growing fleet. When we acquired the Charles W. Morgan a decade later our maintenance and preservation responsibilities grew exponentially. At first, most work was accomplished by local Boy Scout and Sea Scout groups led by a few facilities staff, beginning a legacy of volunteer participation that continues to this day. By the late 1950s, our fleet grew to nearly 30 watercraft and with it, four staff positions were created to meet the care demands. During these years, maintenance took place in the area now known as Siegel Point and Scott’s Wharf, near the Lighthouse, site of the former George Greenman & Company Shipyard. Larger vessels like the Joseph Conrad and L.A. Dunton were taken to New London’s Thames Shipyard for haul-out. In the 1960s attitudes toward historic preservation underwent a nationwide sea change with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. By then the Museum’s fleet had grown to over 100 watercraft and we became a leader in the maritime preservation movement. With concerns for long-term preservation and diminishing capabilities to care for wooden ships in the commercial world, Museum Trustees began to study the feasibility of creating our own shipyard. Such notables as Waldo Howland, John Leavitt, “Pete” Culler, Irving Johnson, and Olin Stephens, among others, argued passionately in favor of this significant commitment. In the spring of 1970, the Board approved the project. Funding was provided by the family of the late trustee Henry B. du Pont and the facility was named in his honor. By then the fleet had grown to nearly 160 watercraft. It is hard to decide what milestone marks the anniversary of the long process resulting in “the Shipyard,” but for our purposes, we’ve called it January 2, 1972, the day Howard Davis, long-time shipwright, recalled moving his toolbox from the Point into the new Shipyard Main Shop. Our first major project was hauling the Morgan to restore it to floating condition in 1974. Next to follow were re-topping the L.A. Dunton, restoring Sabino, and re-decking the Joseph Conrad. Through the following decades all of our floating watercraft had their turn in the shop; Emma C. Berry, Florence, Regina M., Annie, Nellie, Star, and Roann. Eventually, about every thirty years, major work is required on nearly all wooden vessels, and by now some have been in the Shop twice. In addition, we’ve built new replica crafts—whaleboats, dories, lifeboats, and others—to support our educational programs. One of our greatest accomplishments was building Amistad, launched in 2000.
By 2007, after more than 30 years of reliable service, we needed to replace our shiplift, a major investment, but absolutely necessary to continue our work. The new shiplift gave us the capability to work on more than one large vessel at a time, allowing us to haul additional vessels for maintenance and repair during the recent five-year Morgan restoration. This also allows us to bring in outside vessels for maintenance, producing a new income stream for the Museum. In recent years commercial shipyards have been more and more reluctant to take on wooden vessel projects, even simple routine haul-outs. Our capability has been a great benefit to the maritime community and to the Museum not only through income, but allowing us continuity of workforce and a steady stream of material supply. This was especially important during the recent pandemic when our work was considered an “essential service,” allowing work to go on when all else was shut down. In 2011 we began discussions with Plimoth Patuxet (formerly Plimoth Plantation) about the possibility of a major restoration for Mayflower II, built in 1956. Soon after Morgan’s 38th voyage, Mayflower II was hauled at the Shipyard for a thorough survey. We found it was in need of significant work. The vessel came each winter for the next two years for preliminary work, as Plimoth raised necessary funds and we gathered materials. This project was an ideal collaboration between Mystic Seaport Museum and Plimoth, their crew working side by side with our shipwrights for what grew to be a three-year project replacing about 70% of the vessel’s structure. The next projects included major work on the 1942 fishing schooner Sherman Zwicker, replacing stern structure, planking, and thorough caulking. Pilot, built in 1924, followed with major re-planking and caulking. Both vessels serve as floating oyster restaurants in New York City for the same owners. Next came Shenandoah built in 1964, formerly a passenger vessel, now a not-for-profit education ship, for a rebuild of its elegant stern, re-planking, and again caulking. Last winter Pilot returned for re-decking and Mayflower II returned for routine haul-out and inspection. We have become the shipyard of choice for many large wooden vessels, and demand for our skills and talent is growing. As an example of how important this facility is to other vessels, the passenger schooner Victory Chimes, built in 1900, and Kalmar Nyckel, built in 1997 as a re-creation of a 17th-century Swedish ship, travel several hundred miles for work at our Shipyard. Kalmar Nyckel returned this summer. One of the unique aspects of our Shipyard is that our work is not a revival of skills as it has been elsewhere. There is a continuity unlike any other. Our first generation of craftspeople grew up when wood and natural materials were the principal medium for ships and boats. They taught the next generation who then, in turn, taught people of the current generation. Now we’re passing those traditional skills on once again in a direct line from the age of wooden ships. This has an unseen added value of culture, the subtlety of skills and techniques, and appreciation for wood and the vessels created from it found nowhere else. Looking forward, we will continue to be the premier resource for wooden ships, and maintain our own fleet— both the ships and the skills necessary to preserve them.
