Sea Log - Day Four - Jan. 10th, 2002 (Thursday)

Glorious weather today.  Bright and crispy cold with the sun sparkling on the sea.  Today we headed north.  Our plan was to take in Marblehead, Salem and Gloucester.  However, we would need to save the last for another day.

Marblehead is a small community just north of Boston.  It has a rocky coast with a few beaches here and there.  It's harbors are filled with pleasure boats showing how the sea continues to be a  central part of its life as its been since colonial times.  Take a look at this photo which is a part of the Marblehead Online Tour.  In fact, as I will cover a bit later, Marblehead has the special honor of being called the cradle of the United States Navy.

My father is always laughing at me over my "toys."  A few years back my wife gathered funds from the entire family at Christmas to buy me a replica of the sword Excalibur.  My father's comment that Yule was "this is your last dumb gift."  Well I use that "dumb gift" yearly as a visual aid in my Intro to Literature class section of Chivalry.  Another "dumb gift" was a brass seaman's spy glass again given to me at Christmas by my beloved.   The spy glass has the same magnification as Galileo's when he charted the moon.  I took it everywhere this trip (as you will note from any group shots which include me).  

Amazing how useful a spy glass can be by the ocean especially after one discovers that with the sea, distant horizons are  always a reality.   Above, Michael is spying out something to the South of Marblehead.

The weather was today so wonderful that we just had to stop at one beach and look out over the seascape before us and to get a bit of salt air in our lungs.  Some of us I think were inpatient to actually get in the water.  At least that's the only explanation of I have for what David is doing: 

It was at this stop that I realized I had left all my class notes at home.  I thought of would have a conniption right there, but after some deep breaths (and calming words from my father) I decided to do my best from my head.

Unlike other points of interest visited on this part of our trip, I had never spent any time in Marblehead during my youth in New England.  However, my father and I had made a number of exploratory journeys during the month of June when the Tiegal foundation has given me a mini grant to work on the collaborative nature of the class.  At that time I discovered two historical sites.  A look out fortification of the revolutionary war and a colonial grave site that contains the remains of America's first navel hero: Capt. James Mugford.

Bailey's Head is a small hill from which can be seen a good view of Marblehead harbor. As the plaque on the left notes it was, during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 the location for Fort Washington, a fortification which looked out over Marblehead harbor. (As with all photos on this site, the viewer can click on the image of the plaque to get a larger and more readable image).   The fort was manned by local Marblehead inhabitants.  After the ramparts were moved, the land was later set aside as either being free or used for religious purpose by members of society.

On the top of the hill we found a plateau which looked out over the bay and in the center was a flag reminding us of the fort which once guarded this coast.

Another Photo of us all

Right across from  Bailey's Head is another rise on which is "Old Burial Hill."  As you can read on the left, it was established in 1638 (remember the Pilgrims only set foot in Plymouth in 1620) and also was a site for one of the first religious meeting houses. The above photo was drawn from The Old Burial Hill, Marblehead site. which contains many other photos of interest--including a monument to lost fishermen.  

I especially wanted the crew to visit this site because in it is a memorial pointing to the sky in memory of The Franklin, her crew, and her captain: James Mugford.  

James Mugford was a conscripted American sailor who learned while working on a British ship of the coming of a "powder ship" coming from England.  Somehow Mugford's wife was instrumental in manipulating his release, and he immediately set work to man a crew to see if they could capture the vessel.  The audacity of this act is made clear by just the comparison of the ships' sizes and the memory that Britain's sea power at that time was unchallenged.  

These brave patriots in a 60-ton schooner captured the 300-ton Hope, a British "Powder Ship," so called because it was loaded with munitions.

Sadly after the success of the attack, The Franklin ran aground and was then assaulted by three boats filled with British Marines.  The fight went on for hours and near the end of it Mugford was mortally wounded.  Dying, he told his men: "Don't give up the ship; I'm sure if you will be triumphant if you endure."  They did endure and while there was heavy loss of life on the side of the marines, Mugford was the only casualty among the Americans.