Historical Materials: 19th-Century Documentation

A hand-powered mill for grinding small bait fish (herring) into small bits called chum, which was kept in a chum box lashed to the side of the schooner amidships, on the starboard side, where the crew fished from the rail. As the mackerel  swam under the schooner, chum would be tossed from the box with a large spoon in a process called tolling. If hungry, the mackerel would bite at the chum - and at fishing lines with mackerel jigs - in a feeding frenzy.

E.R.

While heavily constructed to transport ballast stone from local beaches, this style of cart was used for many purposes. It is otherwise identical in design to horse-drawn carts depicted in Lane’s paintings.

This sea serpent billet head came from the schooner "Diadem" which was built in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1855 and owned by D. Elwell Woodbury and John H. Welsh of Gloucester.

Sea serpents were reportedly sighted here on Cape Ann from colonial times through the mid-nineteenth century. In 1817, more than 50 people, many of them prominent members of the community, reported seeing a serpent in the waters of Gloucester Harbor just off Pavilion Beach. So credible were the reports that the Linnaean Society of New England collected depositions from witnesses and published their findings in a small pamphlet entitled Report of a Committee of the Linnaean Society of New England relative to a Large Marine Animal Supposed to be A Serpent, seen Near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August 1817.

A deadeye is a round block with scored holes for lanyards used to set tension on shrouds and stays. The upper deadeye is seized into an eye in the shroud or stay. The lower deadeye is fitted with a forged iron strap which is bolted to a chain plate fastened to the ship's hull.

Installed in south light tower, 1861; removed, 1980.

Used at wharfside for carrying fish and small fishing gear.

When installed, the light source was fixed and the lens mount rotated.

In the nineteenth century granite was hauled from Cape Ann quarries on heavy carts called garymanders which were pulled by oxen or horses (known as "galamander" in Maine.) A boom rigged above the rear axle was used to hoist the stone so it could be held by chains beneath the wagon. The garymander oak wheels were eight feet high with iron rims made by a blacksmith.

Although from a later period, these tools are similar to tools used in Lane's time.

A type of anchor used in dory fishing.

Riggers' ditty bags held an assortment of tools and materials for use outside the loft (at wharfside, on board, or aloft). Such items might include fids (for splicing), light cordage for whipping, marline and spunyarn for serving and seizings, needles and thread for canvasing rigging line at fraying surfaces. The items were selected according to anticipated tasks.

– Erik Ronnberg, as explained by Erik Ronnberg, Sr.

Worn on the hand to protect the palm when pushing a needle through tight-woven sailcloth. The eye of the needle sits in one of the dimples in the steel plate called the "eye."

A serving mallet is used to cover natural fiber rope with a wrapping of marline (or spun yarn). This covering would reduce chafe and keep water from getting into the cordage and causing rot. The marline would be applied with tar or tar would be added afterwards. This process would take place either in the rigging loft or on the vessel by a professional rigger. 

Tiller used in navigating the yacht "America" across the Atlantic in 1851.

Salvaged from the burning wreck of the packet ship Boston which was lost at sea in 1830. This disaster was the subject of Lane’s earliest known watercolor painting.