Ships

We got a late start today, but we were determined to make the most of the time we had. Ken and Sondra and the kids joined us on our trip to the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum in Groton. This museum is the home of the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine. The small but well designed museum presents the history of submarines in the United States Navy and the development of the nuclear submarine, specifically. The museum is staffed by actual submariners, some dating back to the Second World War.

From the ceiling above the entrance hangs a model of the Nautilus submarine from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Outside in the Thames River is the real thing: the actual nuclear submarine USS Nautilus, launched in 1954, and now open to the public. Kala was unable to maneuver the steep and narrow staircases, hatches, and corridors with Kismet on her hip, so she sat this one out, while Andy, Victor, and the others took the tour and assured Kala that she had made the right decision. It was very tightly packed inside the cramped spaces of the vessel, and although we enjoyed what we saw, we found the cross-section model at the museum to be more than adequate.

For lunch, we stopped in at Mystic Pizza, "the pizza that made the movie famous." While we think their motto may have the facts reversed, we really did enjoy the pizza and the atmosphere, which includes pictures from the movie intermingled with seemingly random photos of celebrities.

After that, we hurried over to catch the last hour before closing at Mystic Seaport, a 19th century fishing village with working shops and historic fishing and whaling vessels to tour, much like Colonial Williamsburg (only, you know, a hundred years later). Unfortunately, with only one hour to spend, we had to be very selective about where we spent our time. We decided that the ships would be our first priority. It was good we planned this out, because it turned out we only had time for the two ships. The rest of the village we had to observe from the outside. Perhaps we can visit again sometime for a more comprehensive experience.

The first ship we boarded was the fishing schooner L.A. Dunton. On board, an interpreter recounted the highly structured disassembly line order of operations on the ship. He told us first of the dividers used on deck to keep the fish from slipping all over when they dropped from the nets. Once the fish were on deck, one man would rip the heads off and toss them into a hold for later removal of the cheek meat. What they did with fish cheeks, we don't want to know. Then, the gutter would pull the guts out and salvage the livers for cod liver oil. The final step before storing the fish was the deboning, wherein a crewman would pull the spine (and as many of the bones as possible) out in a single rip. This was the most crucial part, as it determined the price a fish would fetch. A nice, cleanly deboned fish would get a higher price than a mangled one. Finally, they would salt and stack the fish in the hold, where it would serve as ballast for the trip back to shore.

The Charles W. Morgan whaling ship was much larger and carried a much more gruesome, harrowing tale. We won't go into all of the gory details, but suffice to say that whaling was a dangerous, bloody business. The ship itself proved dangerous, too, when Emma whacked her head on a low-hanging beam. Once she had recovered, we left the whaling industry behind in search of safer endeavors. Next stop: the playground!

At the nautically themed playground, Captain Emma defended her ship against pirates Victor and Kismet. Her first mate Eric was not much help, so the vessel quickly fell into the scallywags' control. This was no problem for Emma, however, she simply declared herself captain of the pirate crew!

A sailor gets mighty hungry, so we all made our way to the Rainforest Cafe. Victor and Kismet had never been to a Rainforest Cafe before, so they really enjoyed the giant plants and animatronic animals that surrounded our table. The food was fantastic and the portions were way too big. In the gift shop, Andy won a radio controlled, candy apple red 1969 Camaro. The perfect way to end a very good day!