Spending time on Cape Cod is a very New England-y kind of thing to do, so since I was in the area I decided to give it a go.  I think I’ve been to the Cape before, but don’t honestly remember when, so I must have been rather young.  I had great plans to go to the beach, visit Provincetown, and chat to people with funny accents from Boston, but I soon realized that it was just far too popular a spot for that kind of relaxing.  I did get a nice camping spot at Nickerson State Park, but the one highway that runs up the Cape was always bumper to bumper with traffic, and parking anywhere was difficult.  So I was a bit frustrated.

I did get to the beach one day, but was a bit overwhelmed by all the other people who were there as well.  This is the first beach in the US that I’ve seen quite this crowded!

I found a little spot for myself that wasn’t too populated and spent part of the day there.  The water was surprisingly warm as I waded along the shore.

I did’t go very far out into the ocean anyway, but I was rather surprised to see this sign, as I had no idea that great white sharks were even in the area.  But having spent so much of my life in Australia, where it’s fairly common for a few people each year to be bitten or killed by great whites, I liked these odds!

Having reevaluated my plans to visit Provincetown because of the crowds, I decided to take the fast ferry out of Hyannis to Nantucket for a day instead.  Walking around town there would definitely be better than fighting traffic, and $25 each way was a pretty good deal.

Nantucket Island is 30 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, and there are several ferries going there, but my best option was the fast catamaran ferry that took about an hour, carrying only passengers and bicycles.  There are also slower ferries that carry vehicles, and a commercial ferry.

In thinking of Nantucket, I had visions of a quaint little nautical town, still stuck in the past in many ways, and although it certainly was quaint, it was much larger and more modern than I expected.  I was amazed by the number of boats in the harbor as we approached the dock, and there were quite a few big yachts as well.

The first place I visited was the Whaling Museum, where I bought a ticket that would get me into most of the historical sites on the island.  Nantucket is of course renowned for its whaling history, and anyone who’s read Moby Dick will remember a bit about the industry.  I don’t know that I actually learned much new at the museum, but it was interesting to see the equipment first hand, and think about the crews being at sea for years at a time in such a dangerous profession, and the people waiting for them back home.

This was labeled as an extraordinarily large sperm whale jaw bone, from a male whale over 80 feet in length.  It was brought back to Nantucket in 1865 from the South Pacific by Captain Cash of the whaleship Islander.  To get a feel for how large this is, I can stand underneath it without hitting my head!

There was also a very nice Fresnel Lens on display, and a description of how it worked, and its importance in lighthouses all along the coast.

I listened to the story of the whale ship Essex, recorded in the book In the Heart of the Sea and the inspiration for Moby Dick, while seated under this massive whale skeleton.  One poor little girl was frightened when she saw it because she thought it was a dragon!  Compare it to the size of the whale boat underneath, which is really quite large, and you can understand where the stories of sea monsters came from.

I learned a bit about the types of harpoons used in the whaling industry, which seemed to vary by location and maker.  They seemed far too fragile for the size of the prey they were designed to hunt.

This large trypot was used for rendering the whale blubber on board the ships, and also by the oil and candle industries on shore.  There were so many of them around that when the Nantucket whaling industry collapsed, the trypots were simply buried to get rid of them.  They are now occasionally seen as lawn decorations.

This is what pure spermaceti looks like — the oil from inside the head cavity of the sperm whale.  I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, but this looks more like canola or olive oil than I would have thought!  This oil, and the skeleton above, were from a whale carcass that washed ashore on Nantucket in 1998.

There was quite an extensive display of scrimshaw at the museum.  Scrimshaw is the carving of whale teeth and bones, often by sailors during their long periods at sea.  Some of them were very detailed.

It seemed a common practice to make bone gifts for those left behind on Nantucket, including yarn winders and these pie crimpers… soooooo many pie crimpers.

Corset stays, called busks, were also a common gift.  I can’t imagine wearing these things all day!

It’s interesting to note that Wolverine was a whaler on Nantucket at one time… 😉

There also seems to be a type of basket that is distinctly ‘Nantucket,” and a sample of them was on display.

Just for fun, before leaving the Whaling Museum I checked out the old time-y photo booth and had my picture taken with Teddy Roosevelt, who was an avid sailor and visited Nantucket.

My next stop was the oldest remaining house in Nantucket, still in its original location.  It was a bit of a challenge to find my way there, because there seems to be no such thing as a straight road in Nantucket, and all I had to guide me was a cartoon map.  Luckily I was walking, and so wasn’t hindered by the many narrow one-way streets, and I eventually found my way there.

The house was built as a wedding gift in 1686 for Jethro Coffin and his bride Mary Gardner, who was 15 years old.  Their marriage united the two families, who had formerly been feuding — sort of like Romeo and Juliet but with a happy ending.  The families were in the timber and building trades, so the house was a showcase of their crafts, and would have been considered almost a mansion at the time.

There seemed to be a massive fireplace in almost every room of the house, but in the winter this would have been the main living, and even sleeping room.  I was told that, after death in childbirth, the number two killer of women at the time was fire  — their skirts would catch alight from standing near the cooking fire.  (But I wasn’t told that that happened in this house!)

This is the only picture of Mary Coffin, and I enjoyed thinking about her living in these rooms, and wondered how accurate the picture was.

There was a lovely garden in back of the house, carefully researched and planted with typical flowers and vegetables from the period of the house.  I asked about the amazing leaded windows, and was told that they were not original to this house, but were from another of the same period.

The next stop on my tour after leaving the oldest house was the Old North Cemetery.  There are thirteen cemeteries on the island, including the Founders’ Cemetery, the Colored Cemetery, Native American Burial Ground, and the Quaker Cemetery, and a growing database of all the graves is located here:  https://www.nha.org/library/cemeteries/index.html.  I visited the Old North Cemetery for no better reason that because it was the easiest to walk to.

I never did find the grave of Abigail Coffin, but I thought this one was interesting.  The inscription reads, “Here lies buried Mr Amos Otis of Barnstable, son of Solomon Otis Esqr and Mrs Jane his wife.  He was cast ashore on Nantucket Decembr ye 6th, 1771 and perished in ye snowstorm there, aged ?4 years, ? months, and ? days.”  So is seems like he survived a shipwreck, but then died in a snowstorm?? Wow.

After a wander through the cemetery, I took a wrong turn down some side streets, but eventually made my way to the oldest surviving operational windmill in the US.

The guide there was a retired school teacher who had worked for the military as an engineer, so we had a lot to talk about, and he gave us an excellent talk about the design and operation of the mill.  I was amazed when he had me pull on a rope to raise the upper grindstone — it felt like I was lifting about 20 pounds, but he said it was about two tonnes!  I was also particularly impressed with the wooden gears at the top of the mill that transferred the energy from the blades to turn the grindstone.  This is not a particularly good picture because of the chicken wire, but you can see the replaceable wooden teeth on the gears, and the friction brake (the curved grey wooden piece that presses upwards on the gear).

I was also intrigued to learn that this was one of five mills on that were originally on the island, two of which were tide mills.  Having never heard of a tide mill, I asked a few questions of our knowledgeable guide.  I learned that tide mills operated like traditional water mills, except that water was let into a holding area at high tide, and released at lower tide to turn the water wheel.  Huh, I learned something new. 🙂

Unfortunately I also learned at this point that all the historical sites closed at 4 pm, so I wasn’t going to be able to see any more that day.  I was a bit disappointed, but was also getting tired, so was willing to call it a day and go look for an early dinner in town before catching my ferry back to the mainland.

I took some pictures of the quaint streetscapes and houses in the town as I walked around all day, and will share a selection of them here to give an idea of the atmosphere of the place.  Some of the main streets were paved, but many of the older ones were still cobbled.  There are plenty of cars on the island, but because the roads are so cramped, many people choose to ride bicycles, which can be rented on the island or on the mainland.  And as you’ll see, homeowners there seem to have a liking for weatherboard siding and hydrangeas!

There are of course lots of boutiques and shops in town, but I only really bought one item:  “The best fudge in the world!”

I enjoyed Nantucket more than I expected to, and was really charmed by the atmosphere of the place.  I think that when I eventually settle somewhere, I’ll go back for a holiday at some point — but maybe in the off season…