So there you are
youve climbed down inside the apple barrel because youre just not tall enough to reach the goodies down there at the bottom. Since youre already here, you figure its as good a place as any to rest a minute and enjoy a snack. Apple in hand, you take that first tasty bite and while your savoring that morsel and contemplating how lovely the next one will be, you suddenly find that you are guilty of eavesdropping. There is an impromptu crew meeting commencing just outside your sanctuary and their conversation involves a not so subtle plan to take over the ship. This is the kind of thing that could get a sailor keelhauled (or worse). And if the conspirators knew or even thought that theyd been overheard, then that or worse bit of the equation could very quickly befall you as well!
So whats a young cabin boy to do with such dangerous knowledge?
Well for young Jim Hawkins, this rude awakening marked the bright line in the story where an amazing adventure turned into a life and death struggle.
For us
A similar proposal to commandeer one of our vessels (specifically: Bus-4) wasnt going to be anywhere near as consequential. If fact it might seem trivial, but
it would certainly lead us to a rather different adventure form the one that wed originally signed on for. But Im getting ahead of myself here. Best to start at the beginning
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The South Street Seaport
Bus tour of Manhattan now over, we said our goodbyes to the group of tour guides that had kept us so entertained this morning. From here, wed be on our own for couple of hours. So wheres here?
Why
Pier 17 matey!
A place more commonly referred to as The South Street Sea Port.
Well thats what it looks like now. Originally this was the citys main port. Pretty much every bit of freight that entered the city via the water came through this spot where Fulton Street meets the East River in what is now the financial district.
The South Street Seaport Museum was founded in 1967 and the focus at the time was the preservation of the block of buildings known as Schermerhorn Row on the southwest side of Fulton Street. The idea was to create an educational historic site, with "shops" mostly operating as reproductions of working environments found during the Seaport's heyday form around 1820 up to about 1860 (and the beginning of the Civil War).
This area was also formally home to the Fulton Fish Market. That facility has since moved to the Bronx but it is still the most important East Coast wholesale fish market in the US. After the market moved out, the museum group then acquired those building as well. The old structures on the pier were replaced at about this same time with what is basically a shopping mall. The intention there was to draw in more tourists. So far the decision seems to be working. In truth, given our rather short time frame for adventuring, wed be spending pretty much all of our time in this newer area, but there is a good bit to explore, so Id recommend taking a little time to walk around down here if you get the chance.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On the Water Front
As I said, the buildings that are actually on the pier make up what is basically a mall
But there are also a good number of dinning options here and that was really the basic intention for this stop in the first place. I hunted down an independent counter that happily sold me a rather good cheese steak sandwich, and the girls went with a bit of seafood. All things considered, not a bad dinning experience.
We also caught sight of our youngen several times around here as he was roaming the area in the company of the other kids in his quartet (remember, loosing site of your assigned buddies was one way to quickly get yourself shipped back home at mom and dads expense). See him we did, but we basically left him alone and did no more then wave. Its tough letting go of you teens, but its also necessary to give them the room needed to master that independence thing which will be descending upon them evermore rapidly as the last days of childhood pass them by.
After lunch we still had about an hour before we needed to meet up for the drive back to Jersey, As such, exploring was the order of the day but given the time constraints we decided to explore the sites that were close at hand. And from this point on the island the most obvious site to be seen would be this one
The Brooklyn Bridge (and to think, no one even offered me a chance to buy the thing).
The other engineering marvel in the picture there is the Manhattan Bridge but its the older span that grabs all the headlines. If you look a bit more carefully from this spot though, you can actually see three bridges
That one in the distance there is the Williamsburg Bridge. Now then lets get back to the main structure in this exhibit. As you can see, there was a bit of refurbishment in progress that spoiled the look of things just a might
But we still took the opportunity to have our mugs immortalized with another NYC icon
Yah
Ive always wanted to have my picture taken with one of those quarter-driven tourist binocular/viewer thingies (theyre just so cool
oh, and the river and the bridges in the background are kinda nice as well). Now with one more photo-op ticked of the list, I had a bit of time to wander the rest of the pier area. Just behind where we were standing I spotted something I wasnt expecting to see at all: a wedding. Well, it was probably more a reception, but still not something I was expecting. The Groom was escorting his bride down the stairs to a lower level and what I must assume was a rentable space for parties and such
The odder thing here at least form an American perspective was that there was a wedding taking place on a Wednesday in the first place. Thats rare now-a-days, but it use to be far more common. Interestingly, I ran across a rhyme many years ago that was used to explain the superstitious benefits and pitfalls related to the day that one got themselves hitched. This bit of folksy wisdom was used up through the nineteenth century and goes like this
Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday the best day of all, Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses and Saturday for no luck at all
If there is any merit to that trifling missive, then it aint no wonder that over half of marriages in this country (most of which take place on Saturday) dont quite make it. I mean were all starting out with no luck right off the bat. Thats a tough deficit to be inflicted with while you still havent even figured out just who you are much less how to compromise on everything under the sun with another strong willed individual (but its still been fun trying to figure it out). Oh well, either way, I wish those folks well.
Thats that end of that pointless and unrelated tangent, but now its time to talk about something thats really boring
SHIPS!
(yall can feel free to skip the rest of this, ya know.)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Tall Ships
The Sea Port really is more then just a shopping mall although that is what most folks are here for, but given our time constraints we really werent able to check everything out thoroughly. Other then the Pier-17 retail building and the block of storefronts on Schermerhorn Row
you can also find: a working 19th-century print shop, an archeology museum, a maritime library, a craft center, a marine life conservation lab and a number of individual exhibition galleries. You will even encounter the
remnants of a lighthouse that was first erected as a memorial to the loss of the RMS Titanic. This structure now stands at the entrance to the museum complex, on the corner of Fulton and Pearl streets. But still, the most obvious and dominant artifacts that youll encounter are a collection of vessels that make up the largest privately owned fleet of historic ships in the country.
Just to the south of the Mall building at Pier-16
I mean, seriously
as they look rather quaint and out of place among the buildings of the Lower Manhattan skyline, theyre rather hard to miss wouldnt you say?
This is a group of around eight historic ships with significant history relating to cargo handling, harbor duties and the merchant marine in general. This armada is made up of tugs, lighters, schooners, a light ship and a pair of Edwardian Era sailing freighters built and rigged to a style known as a braque. The grande dame of the group would be the Peking (1911)
And ranking a very close second in the categories of elegance and statuesque beauty would be the slightly older Wavertree (1885)
Even though steam power had long since surpassed even the great clipper ships for speed and reliability by the time these freighters were launched, iron and steel hulled sailing vessels were still being built and operated well into the twenty century. They were able to eke out meager returns by sailing routes that were difficult to serve by steam ships due to the vast amounts of coal that would have been required. The most common circuits frequented by this type of ship were the hazardous trips around the horn of South America and around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa. They would carry bulk cargos such as jute, rubber and nitrates along these difficult and treacherous waters and did so until the advent of better canals, turbine engines and more light weight and low volume fuels (oil & diesel) finally made them unprofitable. Afterward, those ships that were not scraped outright were often abandoned, used in bulk storage functions or even as housing in some instances. These two examples were acquired by the museum at different times and refurbished over the years.
While Im here, let me give you a better look at some of the smaller ships that youll encounter as well
I could tell you a lot more about each, but I figure that those who really want to know more will have already looked each one up (right)? Ok, I do believe that Ive assaulted yall about enough with this ship tour foolishness. Let me just say that while I enjoyed the close up look, I was disappointed that the exhibits were closed and no one could go aboard.
Such is life.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Arrrrr
Were a commandeering this here vessel mate; savy!
It was right about here that Tracy (this lady is our head chaperone for most school functions) was able to track us down with both a warning and a proposition. Ya see, the plan for tomorrow was that the kids needed to be in town very, very early, but the tag-along folks werent heading out until considerably later in the morning (closer to sunrise). The problem was that our directors needed to spread the kids out a bit so that (for expediencies sake) they could carry some of the gear needed up in the bus cabins. They also needed additional room for the instructors and chaperones that would be walking the parade route as well but who had all ridden up on one of the two adult busses (the three busses with the kids were pretty much full to the rafters from the get go). What this meant to us was that Bus-4 would be leaving at O-dark-30 with the kids and
that there were going to be too many folks left back at the hotel for all to fit into the remaining Bus-5.
This was a problem
the mutiny was taking place one way or another but
Tracy had a plan and we could either profit by it, or take our chances and potentially find ourselves marooned in the morning. She was looking for fifteen loons
errrrr
. I mean good salts, that would be willing to join in on the bus-4 takeover and travel into town in the ridiculously early AM with the kids. Tracy is also no fool. She knew exactly which folks would most likely make that kind of sacrifice for the organization and in asking us
she proved herself correct.
Ill tell yall more about this decision and its consequences latter on, but for now
Its just about time to get back on the busses and head for Jersey.
All of the kids had by now started collecting in groups by bus number near the front of the piers.
It amazing how when you trust folks, they will generally meet you expectations (and when you challenge them, they usually exceed them), but there was another potential problem on the horizon as well.
After wed stood a little longer then anyone was initially expecting to have to, the word got passed along that Bus-1 had a flat tire and it wasnt certain just how long it would take to fix. As a result, our leaders were contemplating spreading everyone out in the remaining buses by filling the isles and sitting on laps (both of which are seen as illegal in NYC and frowned upon mightily by our home school district). This wouldnt be a first and sometime Ill have to tell yall the story about when on a different trip one of our busses was attacked by a turkey, but for now lets just say that this was turning out to be a potential major headache. At least the rain had finally stopped or this would have been a rather miserable wait as well. As it turns out, however, the city of New York proved its resourcefulness and stepped up to help us out. Apparently it is true that one can find just about anything here (and on short notice too), so we had a bus tire repair crew on site in jig time and ended up loosing only about twenty minutes off the schedule. With that problem now averted, we loaded up and headed back up town toward the Lincoln Tunnel.
We rolled back across the financial district again
and even passed by MIB Headquarters
Gaurd: "Help you?"
James Edwards: "This dude gave me this card..."
Guard: "Elevator."
From here the caravan traveled up the west side of the island until we rounded by the art-deco light towers that mark the entrance to the tunnel
Before we knew it, the city was in our rearview. Once back at the hotel the grownups were free to chill-ax, but the kids all headed to their rooms, changed clothes, grabbed their horn and gear and headed back out to the parking lot for one last rehearsal session. After a couple of hours of fine tuning they were also dismissed and every one was invited down to the ball room for a pizza party dinner, compliments of the hotel kitchen
The sun had not yet set, but day three was ostensibly over. After a bit of grub and one more pep talk, lights out for those leaving in the first wave was announced as 19:30 hours. The directors could advise but not force the kids to get some sleep, but they could enforce an order for general quiet after lights-out. Being as wed signed on (or had been shanghaied depending on your point of view) to be part of that expedition, we also decided itd be best to comply with the early bedtime suggestion.
Oddly enough, we were still so tuckered from the combination of the drive up and all the running around of the last couple of days, that once the curtains were drawn and the lamps had been doused, sleep came easily and rather quickly.
