Some 30 seaport buildings house displays of art work and artifacts, along with working exhibits of trades, such as printing, and shops (including a chandlery) that represent typical establishments of a 19th- century coastal village.Įverything that can be moved will be, and what cannot be moved will be protected. Not only ships and boats must be looked after. ''We can't have them floating off their cradles and banging around,'' said Mr. The staff will weight such boats with sandbags and will drill drain holes in any boats that do not already have them. ''Small boats, like canoes, will be moved to safer buildings, but others, like Nelly (a 30-foot steam launch) are too heavy,'' said Benjamin Fuller, curator at the seaport. While many seaport craft are normally in the water, about 50 are displayed in buildings, some of which have flooded in past storms. Dunton, the seaport's 1921 Grand Banks fishing schooner, will be secured with steel cables to the liftdock (a marine elevator), where she is currently undergoing restoration. ''But we tell people way ahead of time,'' he stressed, ''not when the wind's blowing 50 miles an hour.'' Robinson also noted that, with hurricane warnings, the visiting yachts that line the seaport's docks all summer will have to depart the hurricane mooring arrangements will leave no room for them. Some small boats will be swamped with water at their regular moorings, sinking them so that they will not be blown away by high winds others will be hauled from the river and secured inside buildings. Berry, will be secured to these, away from the docks and from one another, with long lines to accommodate excessive tides. Before a storm, large vessels such as the 113-foot Morgan and medium-sized ones such as the 45-foot fishing smack the Emma C. He referred not to bodies, but to 5-to-10-ton chunks of granite, with heavy chains, that have been sunk in the river bottom. ''We've already buried all the 'dead men' '' Mr. The seaport fleet of three tall ships and scores of smaller craft must be secured ''before it starts blowing like hell and the rain is streaming down,'' said Donald P. Any storm that appears 48 hours away is tracked carefully, and an expected hit 12 to 18 hours away puts planning into action, day or night. Staff members monitor weather reports during the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June through November and peaks in August and September. The museum, located on 17 acres by the tidal stream of the Mystic River, has developed over the years a detailed plan to protect its collection of a half-million objects, ranging from tiny pieces of scrimshaw to the Charles W. A Coast Guard notice tacked on the wall warns, ''Long- range forecasts and present weather patterns indicate the 1984 season may well be one of the most violent in recent years.'' Photos of the seaport show the flooding and devastation wrought by the six hurricanes to hit the area during this century. IF a hurricane threatens the Connecticut coast this year, employees and volunteers at Mystic Seaport will swamp small boats and secure great ships, cover an 1880 printing press with polyurethane and haul thousands of artifacts, books and documents to higher, safer ground.
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