The Whaling Museum & Education Center, 301 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor recently announced a spring series of NYS Certified Safe Boating Courses for students aged 10 and older. These courses provide essential knowledge about safe boat operation, regulations, and responsibilities of boat ownership. Upon successful completion of the course and exam, participants will earn a Safe Boating Certificate.
The course meets the New York State education requirement for the Personal Watercraft Operation Permit, Youth and Adult Boating Certificate. New York State certified instructors present the course in the Museum’s workshop. Participants may view the museum’s exhibits during short breaks throughout the 8-hour course.
Participants may bring a bagged lunch for the lunch break. Adults over the age of 18 have the option to walk into Cold Spring Harbor village to purchase lunch or coffee at any of the businesses or restaurants Main Street has to offer. Minors are not permitted to leave the museum during the course unless a parent or guardian is accompanying them.
Upon completion of the NYS Certified Safe Boating Course, students will receive a temporary safe boating card valid for 90 days. For students aged 18 and above, obtaining the permanent card requires sending the completed form and a $10 check to NYS. However, individuals under 18 will automatically receive the permanent card without any fee.
Upcoming course dates are scheduled for Sat, April 13; Sat, May 11; Sat, June 8; and Sat, July 13. Each course will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m.
“We’re thrilled to continue offering this important course to our community,” said Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director of The Whaling Museum & Education Center. “Boating safety is paramount, and this course will provide participants with the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe on the water. Dozens of Long Island residents have already their certificates with us through this course at the museum, and we’re excited to offer more opportunities to get certified this spring!”
The program fee is $35, which includes access to exhibits at the museum for the day. Payment will be collected at the museum before the program begins, and both cash and credit card are accepted. Registration is required and can be completed online at cshwhalingmuseum.org/events.
Participants can create a Nautical Trinket Dish on Thursday, January 11.
Photo courtesy of The Whaling Museum
The Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor will present Crafts & Cocktails, an exciting new adult series beginning this December and continuing monthly on Thursday evenings.
The Whaling Museum invites adults to get creative and learn new skills while enjoying thoughtfully selected cocktails to enhance each monthly program. This new series will incorporate crafts for adults that celebrate history, science, and the sea. Each month, the museum education team chooses a craft that highlights a link to the museum, either from a historical or scientific angle. Cocktails are selected to further immerse participants in the theme of the evening.
“Just as we find ourselves drawn to the sea today, artists and artisans throughout human history have found inspiration in the watery parts of the world. Through educator-led instruction and artifact exploration, participants will have the opportunity to explore the fascinating origins of sea-inspired crafts, while engaging their creativity and learning new skills. Our carefully curated accompanying cocktails will further bring the past to life as we celebrate Long Island’s maritime heritage,” said Brenna McCormick-Thompson, Curator of Education at The Whaling Museum.
Felted Whale ornament
The debut session stars an adorable, felted whale ornament and mulled wine to get in the spirit. It will take place on December 7, 2023. Participants work with wool and a needle to craft a whale ornament with fins, eyes, a tail, and a loop for hanging. Mulled wine will be served. The full program description is as follows:
Felted Whale Ornaments and Mulled Wine: Join the staff for this festive felting workshop as we explore the history of wool crafting! Discover how whalers carved knitting needles and sewing tools out of whalebone for their wives and loved ones and see examples from our collection. Design and create a needle-felted whale ornament to take home. Sip a festive mulled wine cocktail as you work and learn about the origins of this traditional drink.
Nautical Trinket Dish
The January session will take place on January 11, 2024. Participants will decoupage shells with a sample of patterns to choose from and use paints to decorate it as a fanciful trinket dish. Sample dishes will be shared for design ideas. Champagne will be served as the cocktail for the evening. The full program description is as follows:
Nautical Trinket Dish: This January the museum will be celebrating one of life’s most iconic duos — oysters and champagne! Explore the fundamental role oysters have played in the history of New York and discover current efforts to bring these bivalves back to Long Island Sound. Then, dive into the surprising history of champagne and enjoy a glass of bubbly while designing a unique seashell trinket tray.
Watercolor Wonders
The February session takes place on February 8 2023. Participants will receive watercolor paper and paint with instructions for different watercolor techniques to use in their design. The cocktail will be a “layered” vodka drink. The full program description is as follows:
Watercolor Wonders: Explore the science of water through the world’s oldest kind of painting — watercolor! Discover how both sailors and painters learned to exploit the unique properties of water for their own purposes. Harness the power of physics to engineer a colorful layered cocktail to enjoy while you experiment with a variety of fundamental watercolor techniques. Create a nautical watercolor painting to take home.
The final session in the museum’s winter series will take place on March 7, 2024. Participants decorate a planter with sea shells and plant a succulent to take home. Rum will be served as the cocktail of the evening in honor of the sailors that used to drink grog while out at sea. The full program description is as follows:
Seashell Succulent Planter
Seashell Succulent Planter: Whales, dolphins, starfish….not the sea creatures, but the PLANTS! Join us to explore the incredible world of succulents. For sailors out at sea, every drop of water was precious, but these hardy plants thrive in dry conditions – in fact, too much water often leads to their demise! Learn about the health benefits and easy care for these houseplants and decorate a terracotta pot with seashells to plant your very own sea creature succulent cutting. Unlike those sailors, we won’t leave you high and dry! Sip a rum cocktail while you work in homage to the grog sailors used to drink.
“Adults will appreciate the dedicated attention to detail museum educators have made when crafting each session to encapsulate educational themes with adult enjoyment. Each evening is a perfect opportunity for friends, partners or family members to gather and spend time in a relaxed and unique environment. They’ll go home with something to remember the evening by in addition to a new skill,” added Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director at The Whaling Museum.
The Whaling Museum is located at 301 Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor. Each Craft & Cocktails session is approximately 1.5 hours long at begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $30 per participant and $20 for Museum Members.Registration is online at cshwhalingmuseum.org/craftsandcocktails. For further information, call 631-367-3418.
A vendor from last year's Sea Glass Festival. Photo from Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum
By Daniel Dunaief
One person’s old discarded glass bottle is another person’s artwork, raw material for a necklace, or artifact with a compelling historical back story.
After a well-attended debut last year, the Whaling Museum in Cold Spring Harbor is hosting its second annual Sea Glass festival on July 23rd from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event, which attracted over 600 people in 2022, will run two hours longer than last year and will include hourly flameworking demonstrations on the lawn of the museum’s Wright House.
Last year, “we thought we’d get 30 weirdos like me who maybe like beach trash,” said Nomi Dayan, Executive Director of The Whaling Museum. “We had this huge outpouring of interest. We weren’t expecting this many people, which was the most we’ve ever had [at an event].”
Brenna McCormick-Thompson will lead a jewelry workshop at the event.
Dayan is hoping to accommodate and appeal to even more visitors at the family-friendly event with the additional two hours, numerous local exhibitors, and sea glass competitions for best in show, most unusual and best historical piece.
General admission for the festival is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Attendees can also register in advance for a Sea Glass and Wire Wrapping Workshop, which costs $25 in advance and, if there’s room, $30 at the door. Participants 12 and over will learn how to secure sea glass and design their own necklace. Materials, including sea glass, copper and silver wire and leather lanyard, are included.
Brenna McCormick-Thompson, Curator of Education at the museum, will help lead the workshop. People will “leave will new skills and completed pieces of jewelry,” McCormick-Thompson said. “It’s nice when you have an audience that’s just as excited to learn new things as you are.”
Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director at the Museum, suggested the festival was a “family event” and said she hoped adults brought their children to learn about the history of sea glass. The museum is featuring presentations, a glass-themed scavenger hunt and crafts throughout the day which are included with admission.
Sea glass color and aging
Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy, Executive Director of the Beachcombing Center who has been beach combing for 20 years, will help people identify sea glass by color during talks at noon and 2 p.m. People can “date glass based on a certain shade” of blue, for example, said McCarthy, who is based in Maryland and has over 30,000 Instagram followers interested in her insights, pictures and finds.
In a photo she shared of colored glass, McCarthy said the oldest color is a dark, olive green that is nearly black, which is referred to as “black glass” and is nicknamed “pirate glass.” Those finds were produced before or near the turn of the 18th century.
Combing beaches and finding unexpected artifacts left from earlier generations offers its own rewards. “People find mental health or inner peace in the search,” McCarthy said. “Searching a coastline is a sacred process. People can find things that are meaningful to them personally, but also historically.”
She has seen pieces of glass made in occupied Japan, from the Prohibition era, and from other time periods. On a recent kayaking trip to a coastal landfill near a major city on the east coast, she found an Abraham Lincoln paperweight. For McCarthy, the discovery is among her top five favorite finds.
When she’s not presenting, McCarthy, who will serve as a judge on the Sea Glass of the Year contest, will also help people identify their own sea glass discoveries.
She isn’t surprised by the enthusiastic response to the Whaling Museum’s festival. “I’ve attended festivals with over 10,000 people, where people wait in line for an hour to have sea glass identified,” she said.
George William Fisher
Meanwhile, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., George William Fisher, author and local expert on antique bottles, will present the Origins of Sea Glass: Beverage Bottles and Medicine Bottles, including milk and condiment bottles.
This year, Fisher will focus on beverages through the ages, going back to the early 1840s. He will explore the evolution of design, including a look at bottles from the 1920’s.
One of his favorite bottles is an Emerson Bromo-Seltzer bottle, which counteracted the effect of digestive problems caused by a lack of refrigeration.
Attendees at his talks can handle objects, although guests can look at some of the more expensive findings without touching them.
While wending their way around local sea glass vendors, visitors can explore the museum and can listen to a live musical performance by The Royal Yard, as Stuart Markus and Robin Grenstine showcase sea shanties by the sea shore.
The Big Black Food Truck will also serve food in front of the museum. Last year, the truck offered a peanut butter and chicken sandwich, which Van Bell described as “surprisingly delicious.”
Visitors can also partake in candy made to look like sea glass.
Festival origins
The sea glass festival started when Dayan surveyed some of the 6,000 items in the museum’s collection. Some of her favorites include 19th century glass bottles. The museum had hosted glass workshops at the end of December.
Even though sea glass doesn’t have a link to whaling, Dayan was pleased to see the historic connection visitors made to their findings and to the glass that the ocean reshapes and polishes. The museum is “about illuminating a rich connection to the ocean that surrounds us,” she said. Sea glass provides an “artistic way to do that.”
The Whaling Museum is located at 301 Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor. To purchase tickets to the Sea Glass Festivalor to reserve a spot for the workshop, visit www.cshwhalingmuseum.org. For more information, call 631-367-3418.
The Whaling Museum & Education Center, 301 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor will host its annual craft brew tasting event, Whales, Ales and Salty Tales on June 3 from 2 to 5 p.m. with a special VIP hour from 1 to 2 p.m.
The Whaling Museum invites adults age 21+ to join them for craft beer tastings provided by Long Island breweries including Blind Bat Brewery (Centerport), Destination Unknown Beer Company (Bayshore),Ghost Brewing Company (Bayshore), Great South Bay Brewery (Bayshore), Jones Beach Brewing Company (Long Island Location TBD), Long Beach Brewing Company (Oceanside), Secatogue Brewing Company (West Islip), and Take Two Brewery (Bayshore), with more to come.
“Whales & Ales is one of our signature events. We are delighted to get very positive feedback from the community every year. The historic spin on enjoying local brews makes our program unique from other similar events, ” said Nomi Dayan, Executive Director of The Whaling Museum & Education Center.
In addition to tastings from new brewers, this indoor/outdoor event will include a brand-new activity for attendees to partake in. Each ticket includes the chance to try your hand at the signature craft of whalers, scrimshaw. With the help of museum educators, attendees can design their own scrimshaw-style keychain to take home after viewing some of the museum’s impressive scrimshaw collection throughout the museum.
“We are excited to welcome back breweries that attended last year and to announce some new breweries participating for the very first time! We are honored to have them showcase their finest brews with us. New this year we are offering our scrimshaw craft for attendees to design and take home their own scrimshaw-style keychain. We hope it will be a special memento for supporting a good cause while having a great time with friends and enjoying brews!” said Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director, The Whaling Museum & Education Center.
Attendees will be immersed in the who, what, and why of whaling in the 19th century during our Whaleboat Chats presented by museum educators twice throughout the event. These talks will take place around our 19th century whaleboat, the star of the museum’s permanent collection and the only fully equipped whaleboat in New York State with all its original gear.
Brewers will host chats in our workshop twice throughout the event during “Ale Tales”. This gives attendees an opportunity to hear about the brewing process firsthand.
Also included in the day’s activities are live acoustic music with The Other Two, Acoustic Duoperforming classics from the 60s, 70s, and 80s sponsored by Evolution Piping, Steamfitters of NY and the option to stop by our food truck for the day, All American Wontons, offering delicious handheld wontons in a variety of flavors.
Advanced registrants will receive a commemorative tasting cup sponsored by Mercedes of Huntington. Tickets purchased at the door will also receive a cup while supplies last.
General admission tickets are $40, museum members pay $30 and designated drivers can purchase tickets for $15. VIP admission tickets are $70 and include 1pm entry time and a 2023 event t-shirt. Museum members can purchase VIP tickets for $60. Advance tickets are limited, and tickets purchased at the door are $5 more per ticket. The 2023 event t-shirts are sponsored by H&M Powles Marina. Purchase tickets here.
This event supports the museum’s community education programming and helps the museum raise important funds to continue offering innovative and creative programming throughout the year.
This is a 21 and over event, photo ID will be checked at the door. There are still more opportunities for local businesses to get involved. Interested companies can contact Gina Van Bell at 631-367-3418 ext. 12 or [email protected].
# # #
About The Whaling Museum & Education Center
The Whaling Museum & Education Center is the only museum in the world open year-round which explores the whaling history of the Long Island region. The Museum engages the community in exploring the diversity of our whaling heritage and its impacts to enrich and inform our lives. The museumis located at 301 Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Visit cshwhalingmuseum.org and follow The Whaling Museum on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter@cshwhalingmuseum
Artist Hulbert Waldroup with his painting, The Life and Legend of Pyrrhus Concer, at the Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor
By Tara Mae
Serving in one of the 19th century’s most profitable and perilous industries, Black mariners risked their lives, livelihoods, and liberty in the pursuit of a meager but available wage. The Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor’s new two year special exhibition, From Sea to Shining Sea: Whalers of the African Diaspora, examines the too-frequently ignored Black heritage and contributions to the whaling industry.
Guest curated by Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, Executive Director of Eastville Community Historical Society in Southampton, the exhibit opened on Feb. 15 and will run through 2024.
“This exhibit is focused on expanding and expounding on stories of Black mariners in maritime history and sharing the untold/under-told stories of whalers of African descent and whalers of color in our whaling history,” said Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director of the Whaling Museum.
From Sea to Shining Sea exhibit at the Whaling Museum
The exhibit casts the African American whalers for what they were: main characters in their own lives, who took up whaling as a means of survival and, in many cases, transformed it into a stepping stone for other successes.
“We want people to understand the vastness of their lives, which is sometimes missed,” Dr. Grier-Key said. “We really wanted to focus on that, just going a little bit deeper and not stopping at the surface of BIPOC whalers and their lives, probing what they were able to do and what it meant in the context of the times. We want to offer more of a world view, a holistic look at whalers and their lives.”
Like a ship’s crew comprised of many individual roles, this exhibit consists of items from the museum’s own archives as well as items on loan from 10 different historical organizations. It honors the artistic pull the sea has had on creators throughout the centuries by incorporating art inspired by the water and maritime culture.
Awash with primary source documents, artifacts, and artwork, the interactive display explores what life was like at sea and ashore for non-white mariners while contextualizing the greater experience of people of color who in lived in coastal areas during the 1800s.
The story of one such Black man, Pyrrhus Concer, inspired local artist and Southampton gallery owner Hulbert Waldroup, whose oil on canvas painting The Life and Legend of Pyrrhus Concer (2022), is included in the show. This circular painting, reminiscent of the shape of a porthole, depicts in vibrant colors the nautical scope of Concer’s life, framed in repurposed boat wood rescued from a salvage yard.
A formerly enslaved Southampton man of African descent, Concer became a sailor after he was freed in 1832 (slavery in New York formerly ended in 1827.) He sailed aboard the whaling ship Manhattan, the first American ship to visit Tokyo, Japan, where he was greeted with wonder, being the first Black man many of the Japanese had ever seen.
“It was painted purely out of love and respect for Concer,” Waldroup said. Drawn to the stories of Black cowboys and whalers, who have traditionally been erased from popular lore, Waldroup was intrigued by Concer, whose career as a whaler enabled him to establish himself as a businessman and philanthropist on the shore.
Whaling and other maritime endeavors were often precursors for the precarious promise of more stable lives away from the water, but such pursuits were fraught.
Part of the Sea to Shining Sea: Whalers of the African Diaspora exhibit at the Museum.
“The first Black Americans who were treated as ‘citizens,’ in a way, were sailors. During the nineteenth century, working as a merchant seaman or whaler was one of the few occupations which offered free Black people a relative level of independence and self-sufficiency, along with the opportunity to travel the world with a Seaman’s Protection Certificate,” said Executive Director of the Whaling Museum Nomi Dayan.
From circa 1796-1940, American mariners carried this document as proof as citizenship. It was particularly vital to Black sailors, as they were not defined as citizens under the law until the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868.
African Americans took very big risks for mitigated reward when they sailed with whaling ships. When docking in harbors of the South, for example, they were subject to being jailed or captured and sold into slavery.
From Sea to Shining Sea features receipts for the imprisonment and release of Alfred Gall, an African American crew member on the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Company’s Tuscarora, whose captain had to bail him out of jail. His crime? Being a free Black man in a Southern port.
Yet despite the marine and manmade dangers, whaling was considered to be a viable, even comparably steady trade. The sea offered a sort of freedom to men who might not find it on land as long as the voyage did not kill them.
“Whaling employed the most diversified workforce among all other occupations at the time. Many whalers of color who endured hard work, poor pay, awful living conditions, and serious danger, chose to work at sea because work options on land were limited,” Dayan said. “African American whalers who faced work discrimination on land were more likely than other racial groups to continue whaling.”
Whaling records indicate that rank prevailed over the color of one’s skin. Recruiters did not record race, just complexion, which was a subjective categorization. Herman Melville, the white author of Moby Dick was even listed as “dark.”
Light-skinned African American sailors had more opportunity for advancement. And while Black whalers did encounter barriers to advancing their ranks and were relegated to service-based positions, they usually earned the same rate of pay as other men of the same rank.
“On these voyages, your life and your counterpart’s life depended on how well you did you job. So in that way, you were equal in the sense of doing the work … tough, backbreaking work that was dangerous — you could lose your life but could achieve financial success,” Dr. Grier-Key said.
This made whaling unique to other industries. Whaling could provide a sort of networking opportunity for the African Americans and other people of color. Ancillary jobs associated with the sea were also available to them, such as being caulkers and coopers. Wives of BIPOC whalers might be seamstresses for the captains’ wives.
Such a utilization of community building is a trait understood by the team behind this exhibit, for whom From Sea to Shining Sea is a labor of love and longevity, part of the Whaling Museum’s ongoing efforts to share the whaling tales generally omitted from the history books.
Dr. Grier-Key and Dayan served together on the board for the Museum Association of New York, and Dr. Grier-Key knew of Waldroup through her work in the Southampton community. Together with Van Bell, they coordinated an exhibit that the stories of BIPOC whalers are no longer submerged in the murky annals of time.
RELATED PROGRAMS:
Black History: Whaleboat Chat
Join the special edition of a Whaleboat Chat highlighting the Whalers of the African Diaspora exhibition on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at noon. Gather around the star of the museum’s collection, the whaleboat, and listen as a staff member shares the tale of the dangerous Nantucket Sleighride and the brave whalers. Free with admission. No reservations necessary.
Black History: Build-A-Boat Workshop
Drop by the Museum any time on Feb. 21 and Feb. 24 from 1 to 3 p.m. to learn about African American whalers who designed, built and worked on whaling ships in the 19th century and then imagine, design and create unique wooden vessel models out of a variety of materials in this open-ended workshop. Entry: Admission + $10 participant.
Beyond the Book
Join the Whaling Museum’s new book club! Read Whaling Captains of Color by Skip Finley at home andgo on new adventures through history. Then meet at the museum on Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m. to dive deeper into the story through connections with the Museum’s collection. Adults only. $15 per participant. Registration required.
The Whaling Museum, 301 Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor is open Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the winter months, and Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the summer. Admission is $8 for adults; $6 for seniors; $6 for children ages 4-17; free for children three years old and younger; and free for members. For more information, visit www.cshwhalingmuseum.org or call 631-367-3418.
This 19th century whaleboat is the star of the The Whaling Museum's permanent collection.
An insight into Long Island’s nautical past
By Tara Mae
It’s a whale of a tale! Beginning in November, The Whaling Museum and Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor will host new monthly Whale Boat Chats chronicling the history of whaling on Long Island.
Generally 20 to 30 minutes long, the interactive discussions are metaphorically and physically centered around a historic 19th century whale boat. Led by Admissions Associate Gerard Crosson, the talks are guided by question and answer segments and incorporate whaling artifacts for the public to see and touch such as a 19th century iron harpoon, scrimshaw, and blubber encased in a jar.
“We are excited to offer this new opportunity to engage with the museum’s exhibits! Visitors will learn the significance of this whaleboat and how it is tied to our local maritime history. We invite the community to come, stand around the boat and imagine what it was like to be out at sea chasing a creature larger than the boat you’re chasing it in,” said Assistant Director of The Whaling Museum Gina Van Bell.
The program was formed around the whaleboat, the foundational item of the museum’s permanent collection. It belonged to the 19th century New Bedford whaling ship Daisy, which during its long career sailed from many ports and harbors, including that of Setauket in 1872.
Like many whaling ships, Daisy’s use was multi-faceted: after many Yankee whaling trips and at least one international journey, it was repurposed as a cargo ship during World War I and sank circa 1914.
American use of whaling ships during warfare dates back to at least the Revolutionary War, when they surreptitiously sailed between Patriot controlled Connecticut and British-occupied Long Island, delivering messages, etc.
“They were used in guerrilla warfare. Fierce hand to hand combat happened in whaling ships. They were very useful, very seaworthy,” said Nomi Dayan. Executive Director of The Whaling Museum.
For decades, the Daisy whaleboatproved to be profitably versatile. During her most famous excursion, Long Island ornithologist Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy used the whaleboat on an exploratory voyage to Antarctica in 1912, commissioned by the American Museum of Natural History to study birds and bring back specimens.
A dedicated diarist, Murphy, who was fascinated by all he witnessed on the voyage and intrigued by Yankee whaling, kept a detailed record of the journey. He later published Logbook for Grace: Whaling brig Daisy, 1912-1913 about the sojourn. Murphy’s photos from the trip are part of the Whaling Museum’s collection.
“He was one of the best scientists to come out of Long Island…Murphy ended up documenting whales and whaling in a way that no one had before,” Dayan said.
So enamored was he with the experience, that Murphy purchased the whaleboat for the Brooklyn Museum in the 1910s. After the museum rejected his gift, he offered it to the American Museum of Natural History, which also declined to accept it. The whaleboat then hibernated under a tarp on a friend’s front lawn until Murphy and his friends generated enough support and funds to build it a home of its own: The Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor.
“The community came together to build the museum around the whaleboat. It is a key part of maritime heritage,” Dayan added.
Established in 1936, the museum opened its doors in 1942. The museum currently has 6000 object and archival items in its holdings including whaling tools, products, and even art.
“We have one of the best scrimshaw collections in the northeast. People can see beautiful examples of what men carved at sea during the hours, weeks, months, years, of boredom,” Dayan said.
As one of the three original whaling ports on Long Island, Cold Spring Harbor maintains a buoyant connection to its maritime heritage. Whaling was one of the area’s most important sources of commerce, facilitating economic and social growth while making Cold Spring Harbor somewhat of an industrial hub.
Whaling was fairly steady, if inherently risky, work. Voyages were long and frequently fraught. Whalers could lose their boats or even their lives when whales fought back.
“It was a dangerous job,” said Van Bell.
Yet the sea provided potential opportunities to those who might not find it on land, motley crews of experienced sailors, farm boys, and escaped enslaved men.
“Whaling ships were like a kind of United Nations,” Dayan said.
Rather than being paid a wage, crew members were generally paid with a cut of the profits. Whale products included everything from food to oil for lamps, and overhunting eventually led some whales to near extinction.
Whaling as a much sought source of communal sustenance, however, predates European settlers. Indigenous groups like the Shinnecock had a strong tradition of whaling on Long Island, anchored to their connections to the sea. This heritage is explored in another exhibit at the museum, Shinnecock Artists and Long Island’s First Whalers, which debuted January 2021.
Both exhibits are part of the museum’s ongoing efforts to expose the public, both adults and children, to the diverse background of Long Island whaling. A different feature, the hands-on exhibit If I Was a Whaler, permits kids to pretend to be whalers from the 1800s.
“We want to get the community excited and engaged in the story of whaling, following through with our mission of sharing the diversity of our whaling heritage and how it enhances and impacts our lives,” Van Bell said.
Whale Boat Chats will be offered on Nov. 5,Dec. 3 and 29 and Jan. 27 with more dates to be announced in 2023. The programs will be held at noon and 1 p.m. and are free with paid admission to the museum of $6 for adults and $5 for kids and seniors. Members are free.
Located at 301 Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor, the Whaling Museum is open to visitors from Thursday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 631-367-3418 or visit www.cshwhalingmuseum.org.
