Drive. Pray. Scream?: Day 84: Shining Light

When we headed for the New Bedford National Historical Park, on the southern coast of Massachusetts, little did we know we'd be walking into the pages of "Herman Melville's Moby Dick." The historic waterfront and buildings dating back to the glory days of whaling, when New Bedford "lit the world," has been restored and preserved. Cobblestone streets lead from the wharf and Counting House up the hill to the mansions of the ship owners. Mariner boarding houses, as well as their banks, customs house, associated trade buildings and even a seaman's chapel, are along a wonderful walking tour. It begins at the park's visitor center, which is housed in one of the historic structures. It's loaded with great exhibits, both about whaling and the revitalization of the old waterfront, which was home to 500 whaling ships in the mid-1800s. The wharf is still full of boats...fishing vessels were tied up two and three deep on each side today, and there were tall masts and rigging everywhere we looked. The park's restored whaling schooner, the Ernestine, is elsewhere being repaired, so we missed seeing it in all its multi-masted majesty. (It has quite a history of its own: it was involved in the Boston Tea Party, and it was the last sail vessel to bring European immigrants to America.) Its regular berth is near the site of the U.S.S. Constitution's construction on the New Bedford Wharf; that's the ship we toured in Boston. We love it when our historical threads intersect and overlap.

Whale oil, used in lamps large and small (including lighthouse lamps!), was in high demand in the 19th century, as were the whale bones used in corsets, a key component in women's fashion at the time. At the height of the whale oil market, a gallon sold for $2, equivalent to $250 in today's rates. Obtaining the oil involved a chase through oceans around the world that kept sailors from home for six out of every seven years. And once the whale was caught, those who survived the grueling kill had a grisly job processing the whale into oil. New Bedford was a haven for runaway slaves (Frederick Douglas settled his family there), and many chose the whaling life because it kept them out of reach of the slave catchers. But pay wasn't in hand until the return to home port, when market prices determined the profit margin. Wives had to cover the shortfalls in cash during their husbands' absence...taking in boarders, laundry and sewing to make ends meet. They also formed a tight-knit community that cared for the large number of widows in their midst.

When we'd conquered the junior ranger book and completed our walking tour, there was plenty of time left in the day to visit the Roger Williams National Memorial a few miles away, in Providence, Rhode Island. Sad to say, but we had no idea who this man was prior to seeing the site. A religious scholar, he was exiled from the Massachusetts colony in 1637 for stating his belief in the unfairness of claiming land that rightly belonged to the Native population and for disputing the Puritans' blend of church and state. Leaving his wife and children behind, he journeyed west into the wilderness. He had a good command of Native language, and he eventually negotiated a purchase of land from the Narragansett tribe and named it Providence. There, he set about creating a community in which a person could worship God in any way he/she saw fit, free of any governmental interference. Through numerous trips to England, he obtained a charter for what became Rhode Island. His words in the state's charter documents were groundbreaking, and their influence can be seen in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the statehood documents of Massachusetts and other New England states, in which the right to freedom of religion is paramount. Rhode Island is home to the oldest synagogue in America and the first Baptist church.

A statue depicting Williams (although no physical descriptions of him exist) stands on a hillside overlooking the Rhode Island Statehouse. And the national memorial, a meandering park in the valley between the two, is on the site of the colony he established. We were so glad to learn of him and recognize the freedoms he helped to establish.

The iron outline on the wall illustrates the 16-foot span of a sperm whale's tail. The sperm whale was the most highly prized creature in the whaling industry because of the purity of its oil.