When you were a sailor, away from home for sometimes years at a time, out on a vast endless sea, in the rare moments when you had some free time, thoughts often turned to home and those you loved. So naturally, you would grab the nearest whale bone or a piece of ivory and you’d scratch out a vision of home, creating as you did a new art form, scrimshaw.

These and so many other treasures of life on the sea have a home as part of Mystic Seaport.  They include the beautifully ornate scrimshaw, but they also include paintings of the sea and the ships that sailed her, paintings completed in the dusty attics and open air of New England port cities.  Watercolors of yacht racing and maritime adventures as imagined by those comforted by a warm fire and a hot toddy.

Mystic Seaport brings to life the history of those who braved the oceans in dreams of a better life.  Models of the ships they sailed, photographs of the racing yachts that plied the waters of the Atlantic during America Cup races, even the elegant clothes brought back from Asian and South Pacific Island adventures are all on display, acting as a reminder today of days long past.

So when the lure of the sea and its history begin to tug at your heart; when you are ready to feel the sting of the icy north Atlantic; when only a submersion in the art of the maritime will scratch that particular itch, there is but one destination for you. Mystic Seaport.