Report Me All Well

We have passed the halfway point of our 18 month

mission. Some of it has gone by in a blurr.

Sister missionaries in our "flight group" are likewise marking

specific dates this past week as their "hump day" -

or at least their loving mothers are doing so on Facebook.

Mission car registration deadlines took us into mid-Maine

on Monday and Tuesday. A highlight was our visit to

the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath where this corporate 

large painting hangs. It commemorates the passing of two 

sailing ships around Cape Horn, and is the work of sailor-painter

Charles Robert Patterson (1932-33). The W.R. Grace has

hoisted the signal flags BQD, meaning "report me all well."

Quoting from the description plaque:

"The ship is shown northbound in the Pacific, passing another

vessel. In the days before radio, it was common for

vessels passing closely at sea to identify themselves

and ask to be reported, not knowing which vessel would

make port first."

In the spirit of this painting, please consider us as having

hoisted our BQD signal flags: report us all well!

* * * * *

Another busy transfer week has passed, which means we

once again had an opportunity to travel south to Concord, MA

to the Old North Bridge, and then to the historic Colonial Inn

to share and feast with the departing young Elder(s) and Sisters.

About the sixth time we have had the pleasure of being served

by James who has worked at the Colonial Inn for 17 years.

I asked if we could have a picture with him, so that when I see

his friendly smile, I recall also his wonderful New England accent.

(As things turned out with COVID restrictions, this would be

our final time to associate with James!)

It was a beautiful though chilly night, and picturesque.

Elder Warner's mission business in Maine took us 2.25 hours

north to Brunswick, where the car being driven by these two

wonderful young ladies, Sisters Gaunt (from England)

and Niepraschk (from San Franscisco area), has NH

registration. Expiration dates at end of February means

the car has to physically be driven into NH (Sanford, approx.

2 hours away) to be safety inspected and renewed.

 While Elder Warner drove the mission car west,

I was transportation for the Sisters to a (cancelled)

teaching appointment, to the Brunswick library,

and then to lunch. They were so much fun and our

conversation so enjoyable, I could have stayed for hours!

By early evening, we had reunited and driven north to 

Bath (the City of Ships). I'll write more another time about 

the interesting New England town names which recall

England heritage from settlers in those early colonial days.

Vince stepped "outside of HIS box" and reserved a historic

home B&B for our first experience with this type lodging.

This is the Benjamin F. Packard House, built in 1790 by someone else,

and later purchased in mid-19th century by Packard, a shipwright

and maritime business owner and bank founder.

Our short stay was very enjoyable, with friendly interaction with

hosts Amy and Michael, and a delicious breakfast of baked

blueberry "donuts" (more like muffins in ring shape), fresh fruit,

spinach and cheese puff with poached egg. YUM!

It was "fat Tuesday" the day we were there.

This shot of our "economical" room through the doorway does

NOT show the wash facilities, which only had a stand-up shower.

In other words: we did NOT have a bath in Bath.

After our "old man nap", we walked four blocks into town

near the Kennebec River bank to eat here at J.R. Maxwell

& Co. restaurant. We were seated in this lovely brick-walled

room on the street. I loved the "Elliot House" sign, because

I had been thinking about Jane Austen's Persuasion all day.

In this tall ships & seacoast town, Ann Elliot was on my mind!

 Next day we walked again along the river front where

the occasional floating ice pieces were moving upstream --

because the tide was coming in from the ocean a few miles

further down river, to the right in this picture.

This walkway graphic shows the historic harbor outline

along with the redline of how the inhabitants have added

"land mass" beyond the original quais and beaches.

 At last, we made it to the Maine Maritime Museum.

February cold weather had closed all of the outside 

exhibits (rats!) but we were able to get close enough to

shoot this wonderful "yard" sculpture of the Wyoming,

the largest six-masted schooner ever built (1909) that sailed 

out of Bath. 

Here is the shot from across the street, so that its scale

of 450 feet-in-length can be visualized a little better. 

The museum's outer buildings show some of the trades

and production facilities that were needed to create

sailing vessels like this one.

I really enjoyed learning about so many new-to-me

things, and this descriptive plaque sums up so much!

 Inside the museum, we looked at model ships and "half-hull"

models which were prepared in small scale, and then used as

directly transferred data to build the wooden hulls and fixtures.
(This is a model of the Wyoming - like the outside sculpture.)

 This picture shows the main hallway of the museum.

Galleries off to each side hosted separate exhibits about

light houses and keepers, the ice block industry of Maine, etc.

Our minds and understanding are always focused in

places we visit like this toward the woodworking aspects of

whatever is the subject at hand, because of son Cory's

interest and accomplishments in that arena.

 Both Vince and I shot this ship's carpenter tool box,

intending to text it home to Cory (Vince sent his first!)

Guaranteed to learn new things in a museum, of course.

The exhibit on the ice block industry before the days of

electricity and ready refrigeration was an eye-opener.

Entrepreneurs in Maine in those earlier times recognized

the resource they had - water and deep cold - and went to

work to develop an industry that cultivated thick ice,

fashioned the tools to prepare and harvest it as blocks,

created space to store it until the warmer summer months

when large cities to the south (such as New York and Boston)

would want their product, then industriously arranged what

was needed to move, organize, transport, ship and deliver it.

The owner of the largest venture even found clever ways

to manipulate the "supply & demand" principles to his

not-always-honest advantage. He was eventually released

from prison on his racketeering conviction due to poor health

he apparently self-inflicted by drinking toxic liquids.

This image is a historic photo (one of dozens I could have

included) showing someone slicing the ice sheet into blocks.

To conclude, I return to my time at the Brunswick

library, where I stumbled upon a wooden sculptures

exhibit by artist Blake Hendrickson.

 These caught my imagination - wouldn't it be fun

to try my hand at these! But then I read that the artist

has been building and creating these for 38 years.

I don't have time to get good at it - oh, well.

 This closeup shows some of the detail of the varied wood

findings and fixings that he used. I especially like

the sawed wood element near the right hand bottom -

looks like a fish!

 The sculptures were small and large!

 This one uses many discs cut from tree branches

with the design elements enhanced from growth rings . . .

. . . as can be more easily seen in this closeup.

Our lamp and life and imagination and understanding

have been richly filled this week by experiences here.

My heritage is tied to an ocean voyage from England in mid to late

nineteenth century, so I pay homage to shipwrights, business men,

visionaries, and laboring hands.

God bless those who see challenge as adventure.

He is blessing us every day!