Wednesday. Jan. 16

Somewhat chilly today, but not as cold as it has been earlier this week.  Today we traveled around the city of Quincy.  Although we were unable to visit the USS Salem for an actual tour as I had hoped we found other maritime sights of interest.

One major point of interest for Quincy is its history as a ship building port.  In fact even today the tallest crane for ship building stands in Quincy:

Even idle these structures stand majestically over the bay.  There has been talk of trying to bring in investors who want to build cruise ships since all this equipment is still viable, but overseas competition is making that dream difficult.  It's a little sad; these huge machines stand like grave markers to the once thriving ship building industry of Quincy.

Another interesting and touching site was the sailor's graveyard in Snug Harbor, Quincy. (The old, grizzled sailor on the left is scanning the harbor from the grave yard.)   It's a very quite place reached by a trodden path which begins (of all places) in the parking lot of a local school yard. (I learned that my nephew who attends there has heard all sort of ghost stories about the place--especially about an old sailor and a nurse who wander the halls at night).

The stones are all set up within a chain link fence so we could not get too close.  This site came to exist because there was at one time a sailors rest located in Quincy.  It's long gone and all that remains are these stones.  Looking at them, I was reminded of sad if beautiful song:

DOWN AT THE SAILORS' REST
Words & Music by Stan Rogers
(Recorded by Tom Lewis.)

(My version was apparently recorded by the Clancy Brothers and O'Connel)

There's acrimony down in the cardroom, with winning hands thrown on the baize;
Forgotten cards wait on the end of debate, all about 'The Good Old Days!',
Captains and Mates getting testy, with memories not of the best;
Tempers are rising - down at The Sailors' Rest!

Blue eyes in wrinkled 'Morrocco', still scan the horizon for squalls;
Zeros in the skies of the lookout's eyes when he should see pawnshop-balls;
Spice in the wind offa' Java, and the bars in Papeetee were best,
But the deck is too steady - down at The Sailors' Rest!

Chorus: 

Oh - how they talk of the day they arrived,
After the years, all the storms and the tears, still very much alive.
Oh - how their lives were spilled out on the floor,
From the battered old sea-bags, the journals and logs,
And keepsakes locked in the chest,
That were stowed in the attic - down at the Sailors' Rest!

No rail on the messroom-table, and ye'r dead is you spit on the floor!
No grog allowed, no singing too loud, no locks on the door.
But there's always a fire in the cardroom, and the tucker is none but the best,
And they'll end it together- down at the Sailors' Rest!

Oh, how they talk of the way they survived,
After the years, the storms and the tears, still very much alive.
Oh, how their lives were spilled out on the floor,
From the battered old sea-bags, the journals and logs, and keepsakes locked in the chest,
That were sold at the auction - down at the Sailors' Rest!

What was especially noteworthy on these markers was the sparseness of comments on the the stones: 

The only exception to this was one stone set up for Captain Hanson Gregory who is credited to be the creator of the donut.  (In fact, Dunkin' Donuts®--based in Quincy--set up the stone in his name.  The I heard was that the hole in the center was supposedly placed there to make it easy to stick somewhere (like through a spar) and then go back to later. However for an alternative explanation check out this donut site. Interesting that his grave is in Quincy while the memorial plaque apparently is in Clam Cove, Maine.   That page also describes the lengths Admiral Richard Byrd went to assure a fresh selection of donuts on board his ship. Another web page confirming Gregory as the creator of the donut is Call of the Doenuts!  Interestingly none of them mention Quincy.  I will just mention in passing that my students soon figured out that Dunkin Donuts is my favorite place to stop for a snack.  It was glaze on the donut to learn that there was a nautical tie in too.

My mother and I who had heard about this marker were a little disappointed.  We were hoping for a big stone donut.  But I suppose that would have been tacky.