Woke to another spectacular day in Groton. We decided that we had had so much fun the previous day in Mystic Seaport we would visit again to catch some of the activities we had 
missed the day before. On particular event on the agenda was the "Dead Horse Ceremony". In the days of the great sea voyages on the wooden tall ship sailors were given an advance by the ship owners to buy what they needed for their journey. Inevitably this was spent on women and drink and not the essential provisions. This being the case they had to borrow more money to get the necessary items and set off to sea in debt. After a month or so these debts would be paid off and to mark this event they had this "Dead Horse Ceremony"' where a horse made from rope, sails and barrel would be beaten, kicked and generally abused, dragged around the deck and then hoisted from the yard arm. This would all be accompanied by the ubiquitous sea shanty. At this point the horse would be unceremoniously dumped into the sea - and being weighted down by ballast would sink down to Davy Jones Locker. This event was reconstructed aboard the Joseph Conrad, one of the resident tall ships, and Jack and Emily joined is as the indebted crew members.
After casting the poor horse into the water (by the way no animals were hurt in the making of this blog) we decided to take a look around the Sabino, a 99 year old steam boat and admired the wonderfully maintained steam engine. Now exhausted from the mornings exertions we decided to take a leisurely cruise on a water taxi along the Mystic waterfront. Emily and Jack did their best to talk the poor man running the boat to death but it was relaxing non-the-less.
After spending an all too short time in Mystic we set off on the next stage of our journey to Newport, Rhode Island, some 90 miles or so away. Newport was established in the latter part of the 18th Century and is now an extremely busy marina and has been in the past a summer playground for the rich and famous. The "rich" heritage is evidenced by the quantity of large mansions along Bellevue Avenue which had such illustrious owners as the Astors and Vanderbilts. A number of these houses are now open to the public and maintained as historic land marks. We took a trip out beyond these houses to the rugged coastline - it reminded Karen a bit of the Cote Sauvage in Brittany, France. This was a great opportunity to explore the tide pools.
missed the day before. On particular event on the agenda was the "Dead Horse Ceremony". In the days of the great sea voyages on the wooden tall ship sailors were given an advance by the ship owners to buy what they needed for their journey. Inevitably this was spent on women and drink and not the essential provisions. This being the case they had to borrow more money to get the necessary items and set off to sea in debt. After a month or so these debts would be paid off and to mark this event they had this "Dead Horse Ceremony"' where a horse made from rope, sails and barrel would be beaten, kicked and generally abused, dragged around the deck and then hoisted from the yard arm. This would all be accompanied by the ubiquitous sea shanty. At this point the horse would be unceremoniously dumped into the sea - and being weighted down by ballast would sink down to Davy Jones Locker. This event was reconstructed aboard the Joseph Conrad, one of the resident tall ships, and Jack and Emily joined is as the indebted crew members.After casting the poor horse into the water (by the way no animals were hurt in the making of this blog) we decided to take a look around the Sabino, a 99 year old steam boat and admired the wonderfully maintained steam engine. Now exhausted from the mornings exertions we decided to take a leisurely cruise on a water taxi along the Mystic waterfront. Emily and Jack did their best to talk the poor man running the boat to death but it was relaxing non-the-less.
After spending an all too short time in Mystic we set off on the next stage of our journey to Newport, Rhode Island, some 90 miles or so away. Newport was established in the latter part of the 18th Century and is now an extremely busy marina and has been in the past a summer playground for the rich and famous. The "rich" heritage is evidenced by the quantity of large mansions along Bellevue Avenue which had such illustrious owners as the Astors and Vanderbilts. A number of these houses are now open to the public and maintained as historic land marks. We took a trip out beyond these houses to the rugged coastline - it reminded Karen a bit of the Cote Sauvage in Brittany, France. This was a great opportunity to explore the tide pools.
After touring Bellevue Avenue and Ocean Drive we decided to explore Newport town itself. Thames Street runs along the harbour and is mainly filled with eateries (most of them had no toilets) - incontinents be aware!!! Wondering around the town we stumbled on a church, St Mary's Parish, founded in 1828. This was the church that President John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on September 12, 1953. We ended up at Bannister's Wharf, which together with neighbouring Bowen's Wharf are two up-market dining and shopping meccas, where you can eat, drink and watch extremely rich people fool around on large and expensive looking yachts.
1 comment:
Hi Guys,it looks like you are having a fantastic holiday, its good to be able to print and take to mom. Safe journeys Lindsey xx
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