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What's Up at the Custom House - July 14, 2019
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New London Maritime Society
- Local Friendly Authentic
Telling the stories of New London's waterfront & preserving four historic maritime sites
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Summer Fundraiser - Wednesday, August 7, 2019
NEW LONDON MARITIME SOCIETY
GALA DINNER CELEBRATION
to honor National Lighthouse Day
AUGUST 7, 2019
6 PM - 9 PM
CUSTOM HOUSE MUSEUM
150 BANK STREET, NEW LONDON, CT 06320
$100 PER PERSON
TO BENEFIT THE STEWARDSHIP OF OUR THREE LIGHTHOUSES
Or TELEPHONE 860.447.2501
Alice is preparing the menu. We're having fresh oysters...
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This week - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, July 15-16-17
New tour: Toast the setting sun from inside the lantern at Ledge Lighthouse
on this singular tour
Let's start a new tradition: drink a toast to the setting sun from atop Ledge Lighthouse.
Take a memorable one-hour+ trip to climb to the tower of Ledge Lighthouse as the sun goes down. (We'll provide the beverage!)
Read more & register for your tour here.
Explore the region's lighthouses with the one who knows them best.
The boat takes six passengers, only. Trips coincide with the three days of the full moon.
Best of all, all monies raised by these tours go towards restoration of our local lighthouses.
Remember: Reservations, 8 hours in advance, are necessary for all of our tours, as we need to notify our captains. (If you want to take a chance with a day-of tour, please call 203-444-2884.)
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This week - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, July 15-16-17
Full Moon Lighthouse Boat Tour
Dusk is a beautiful and quiet time to be on the water. This lighthouse tour leaves New London as the sun goes down to view our local lighthouses at night, we they were built to be seen.
Read more & register for your tour here.
Local, Personable, Authentic. Take a memorable one-hour ride to view the three picturesque lighthouses of New London Harbor: New London Harbor 'Pequot' Light a classic octagon, the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Long Island Sound; 1909 brick New London Ledge Light reputed home to Erie the ghost; and Avery Point Light built in 1943, the newest lighthouse in Connecticut. The boat takes six passengers, only.
Best of all, all monies raised by these tours go towards restoration of our local lighthouses.
Remember: Reservations, 8 hours in advance, are necessary for all of our tours, as we need to notify our captains. (If you want to take a chance with a day-of tour, please call 203-444-2884.)
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This week -
Tuesday, July 16
David Lersch will be the guest speaker
at July's JIBBOOM CLUB #1
Tuesday, July 16, 1:30 PM, doors open at 1
David will give a presentation on a Coast Guard Investigation he led involving the disappearance of the Commercial Fishing Vessel
Linda E
on Lake Michigan.
The vessel and all hands were lost in December 1998 without a trace.
The investigation lasted 18 months and involved multiple agencies and unique resources for assistance. When the Search and Rescue was suspended, it was up to David's office to make a determination as to what happened.
Join Russ and Rob for good conversation, a guest speaker, coffee & cookies. Please come and bring a friend. FREE. Sponsored by the Maco Family Fund.
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July 27 & August 13
Boat Tour to Fishers Island & the Henry L. Ferguson Museum
Two dates: Saturday, July 27 & Tuesday, August 13
Take our excursion to Fishers Island to view the 2019 exhibitions 'Against the Tide: Prohibition on Land and at Sea, 1919-1933', and 'The English Springer Spaniel on Fishers Island', both curated by Pierce Rafferty, at the Henry L.Ferguson Museum. A light lunch will be provided. Above,
last year's tour.
We're taking the Fishers Island Ferry from New London.
$75, $65 NLMS members. Schedule details to come, but it will be approximately from 9:15 (July date) 9:45 AM (August date) to 5:45 PM. Exact time details will be forwarded before the trip. Limited to 15.
Register online 24/7 at
brownpapertickets.com/event/4293750
Above, Retrieve at English Springer Spaniel Field Trial, Fishers Island, N.Y., c.1927. HLFM Collection. Below, the Rumrunner Thelma Phoebe, wrecked on Chocomount Beach, Fishers Island, N.Y., April 29, 1923.
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Wednesday, July 31
An Evening of Song (and Desserts) with Mustards Retreat
Wednesday, July 31, 7 PM
New London Maritime Society presents
An Evening of Song (& Desserts) with Mustard's Retreat -- a fund-raiser for the New London Maritime Society on
Wednesday evening, July 31, 2019.
The concert will take place at 7 PM, beneath the big blue tent at the Custom House Maritime Museum. Concert tickets are $20 each, $15 NLMS members, and are available online or by calling 860-447-2501. (Remaining tickets will be sold at the door.) Reserve your seats 24/7 at
brownpapertickets.com/event/4293120 or call 860-447-2501.
Michigan-based Mustard's Retreat has been delighting audiences for 40 years. They are witty, insightful, fun, and profound, as well as accomplished songwriters and musicians (guitars, dulcimer, electric bass, mandolin, harmonica, pennywhistle). The group is well known in the area to Mystic Sea Music Festival fans and Custom House museum friends. They previously have performed at the Custom House and at Friday Night Folk, and were the opening act for folk legend Peter Yarrow's performance for NLMS in 2016. Following their performance on July 31, Mustard's Retreat will be seen at The Falcon Ridge Folk Festivel, in Hillsdale, New York.
The musicians have donated this performance to the Maritime Society so most all of your ticket price is a donation.
NB: In the event of inclement weather, we will move the concert indoors!
fresh, vital, relevant - Robert Reid, Waterloo Record, ON
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Feel like visiting inside Ledge Lighthouse?
Explore one of the region's favorite lighthouses.
Land by boat at New London Ledge Light and explore inside the lighthouse -- all the way up into the lantern.
New London Maritime Society is offering fun-sized, 6-person boat trips all summer long. The 90-minute excursions leave from the Custom House Maritime Museum, 150 Bank St. New London, CT. Matt Lynch, of Water Transit, is the captain. Fees are $60, $50 for NLMS members & children ages 7 to 18.
Sign up online; we'll offer tours most weekends this summer.
NB: Reservations must be made at lease 12 hours in advance.
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Every week
Visit inside NL Harbor
Pequot Light
Sign up in advance
online
; we offer tours Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, and anytime by request. Call 203-444-2884.
Christina is at the Custom House most Saturday afternoons. Call or stop by and she'll take you on a custom tour:
Children must be age 7 or older.
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New London Maritime Society - your local, independent, community museum.
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Frank L. McGuire Maritime Research Library
July Book of the Month
THE NEW AMERICAN PRACTICAL NAVIGATOR
Being an Epitome of Navigation
New York, E. and G.W. Blunt, 1837
Two years after our Custom House opened its doors, the "Ninth New Stereotyped Edition' of Bowditch's navigation encyclopedia was issued.
We don't know how our copy found its way to the Custom House, but we're glad it did because of the unique way it's put together: it would seem that a clever sailor used a length of soft cotton rope to tie a supple leather binding to the book in place of the original broken boards. This month conservator Gene MacMullan tipped in a copy of the missing title page obtained from Mystic Seaport, cleaned the leather, and made a protective folding box. Incidentally, the U.S. Government bought the copyright to "Bowditch" in 1866 and has published it ever since, most recently through the Defense Department's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. No longer printed, it is available at no charge in digital format.
-- Brian Rogers, Librarian
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Please support the New London Maritime Society, like Mayor Michael Passero.
NL's Custom House building is
186 years old.
If you donate
$186
to our endowment campaign, you'll receive this lovely tote depicting our universe (& a few of our favorite things) as a symbol of our thanks.
Call Susan at 203-444-2884 0r send her an
email
to contribute to the endowment and get your lovely tote.
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We're raising funds to landscape
Harbor Lighthouse.
It's glorious at the lighthouse!
But the walk from the street leaves something to be desired...
Now that our lighthouse tours have restarted,
we'd like to be good neighbors
and
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Keep up with what's up!
Sign up to receive this weekly email blast.
July 20, 2019, marks the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing.
Above, photo from the
New York Times
July 20, 1969, NLMS collection.
Do customs apply to extraterrestrial travel? A general declaration form from July 24, 1969, suggests that the Apollo 11 astronauts had to be cleared by customs after their return to Earth. The travelers declared rock and dust samples from the Moon as their cargo, while the customs inspector noted that it was yet to be determined whether there was any condition which could lead to the spread of disease - a reference to the quarantine the astronauts were subjected to in order to ensure that the Moon mission would return any unknown pathogens to Earth. According to the NASA History Office, the customs document was likely drawn up as a joke, though it sparked an urban legend that the astronauts actually had to go through customs after their mission. --Dirk Langeveld
Above,
US Customs document from the NLMS collection.
We thank Rob Groves for picking up the 76 new-to-us folding chairs last week. We will use these outdoors, under the tent!
- Facebook Custom House Maritime Museum to read about events and exhibitions at the Custom House and throughout the world. Bill and Jerry keep the museum open on Fridays.
- Facebook the Custom House MUSEUM SHOP MUSEUM SHOP gifts have that extra feel good factor -- when you shop with us your purchases go towards supporting our museum, exhibitions, and educational programs.
Looney? -- absolutely!
We love these space-age stickers!
We've got out-of-this-world gifts in honor of the first lunar landing 50 years ago (on July 20, 1969).
Our beautiful courtyard garden is back in bloom. The garden was created in 2018 by Linda Roselund, the mural by Christina Corcoran. We made some defensive preparations for SailFest -- to keep the crowds off the turf -- around the new Briney Bank garden alongside the museum.
New London's US Custom House has had its eyes on New London harbor since 1833. Here's a photo of Saturday's Fireworks from our new 24/7
NL HarborCam atop the Custom House roof.
So far,
35,400 people
have watched the harbor via live streaming.
Joe Belbruno, a recent New London retiree to Florida wrote:
The New London Harborcam is great. Now I can see the harbor anytime.
Joe, that's just what we wanted
.
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Please make a 100% tax deductible donation
New London Maritime Society
Thank you for 36 years of support of New London Maritime Society!
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New London Maritime Society | 150 Bank Street, New London, CT 06320 |
860-447-2501
nl
maritimesociety.org
The Custom House Maritime Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 5 PM, or by appointment |
860-447-2501
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