Mystic Seaport Mastheads

I hope all of you had a good memorial day weekend! . We are coming up on summer hot weather although around here the weather keeps flip flopping! Sometimes hot, sometimes cool and rainy such as today thanks to that tropical storm that landed in northern Florida. So the start of summer time brings pictures of ocean, lakes, fun times! Last year when we were up in Connecticut we went to Mystic Seaport. It is an old historic village with boats, houses, gardens, more boats, but since we had never been in that area before it was on my to do list. One of the things I found interesting was all of the ship mastheads they had in one of the buildings.  They were all so interesting, and so I looked up why ships had them.  It turns out that the vikings used them on their ships to ward off evil spirits. Germany, Holland, and Belgium believed that fairies dwelt in the figure heads, protected them from the storms, and if the ship sank they guided the souls to the land of the dead. They were also used to indicate the name of the ship to non literate societies, and also to demonstrate the wealth of the ship's owner.  Although mastheads are not used as before; ships still carry badges or plaques that relate to the ship's name, role or coat of arms.  Wikipedia has more on it too which is where I got this information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we make it back up north again this year I would love to see more along the coastline, and a lot of the history that goes with it. I'll have more posts on this quaint village!