by Karen Rubin
Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
Nantucket is dramatic, of course, because of the whaling industry – an invention that revolutionized life by bringing light into winter’s darkness and what the oil meant to enabling the Industrial Revolution.
We’ve arrived at this tiny island, just 45 square miles some 30 miles out to sea, on the Blount Small Ship Adventures’ New England Island cruise aboard the Grand Caribe. It is our last stop in the week-long voyage.
For me, most fascinating part of our all-too-short visit to Nantucket is being introduced to Maria Mitchell – we are shown important sites associated with her on Gail’s island tour and at the Nantucket Whaling Museum. I am so inspired that I follow a self-guided walking tour that is delightful to give structure to exploring the town.
I meet her again in a storefront display dedicated to her, and then follow the Maria Mitchell Foundation sites: the Nantucket Atheneum (she became the first librarian, at age 18); the Pacific Bank where her father was president; the Unitarian Universalist Church which she joined after leaving the Quakers; Mitchell’s House where she was born, the Observatory built after her death in 1908 and the natural history museum operated by the Maria Mitchell Foundation (mariamitchell.org).
This leads me to the Quaker Meeting House where I have a most unexpected – and fascinating – discussion of Quaker religion sitting in a pew.
“Quakers were the social cement of the community.” You couldn’t do business without being Quaker, but you could pretend to be Quaker.
“Quakers were seen as activists, the hippies of their day,” because they were free thinking and were egalitarian in their treatment of women and people of other races.
The Quakers were considered heretics and banned by the Puritans because they believed in an “inner light”.
They refused to pay taxes to the church or accept authority, or take oaths (for this reason, they couldn’t become doctors or lawyers). It went counter to the control mandated by the Puritans, Anglicans.
“They would show up naked at an Anglican Church,” she tells me, which sparks a thought: Why isn’t Quakerism being revived today? It seems more consistent with modern-day approaches to organized religion.
Most heretical of all: they did not require those they sought to convert to accept Jesus. “They did not require personal knowledge or acceptance of Jesus, just to find God through Inner Light.”
“The Quakers were hanged, branded, their noses split.”
But they found safe haven in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, because in 1661, Charles II ordered that all trials of Quakers had to take place in England. “They were safe in America since they wouldn’t be shipped back to England.”
And over time, the Quakers toned down the “dangerous” rhetoric.
“They were excellent businessmen. They valued education (to this day): boys were educated to 13 or 14 when they were expected to join the whaling ships; but girls were educated to 17 or 18, so they had more formalized education than men.”
The women, therefore, were left in charge of home, businesses and community when the men left for their whaling voyages. Centre Street was nicknamed Petticoat Row because women owned all the businesses.
On the other hand, Maria Mitchell must have stepped over the line, because in 1843, even though her father was an elder, her “skepticism and outspokenness resulted in her leaving Quaker Meeting and being ‘written out’ by the Society.”
The decline of Quakers in Nantucket followed the decline of the whaling business. A great fire in 1846 destroyed much of Nantucket’s infrastructure and the livelihoods of 8 out of 10 Nantucketers. When gold was found in California, in 1849, scores of whaling ships sailed for San Francisco and were sunk in the harbor there rather than return; when petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania in 1859 as a cheaper, easier fuel, scores of Nantucketers went there. The ships, which had to be built bigger and bigger for the longer journeys, had trouble coming into Nantucket’s harbor because of a build-up of silt. Then the Civil War came – more than 300 Nantucket men joined the Union and 73 were killed; the whaling ships were easy targets for the Confederates. The last whaling ship sailed from Nantucket in 1869.
“By that point, Nantucket well out of picture,” the “Nantucket” documentary notes. “The city in the middle of the ocean was evacuated. It went from a population of 10,000 to 3000 in a matter of decades, like a sleeping beauty castle, waiting 100 years with only the memories of whaling.”
Now, the docent says, there is only one full-time Nantucket resident who is Quaker. “We get 5 to 8 people for Sunday meeting.” During that time, people sit and meditate; they do not even read a Bible.
I stop in at the Research Library where there is a stunning exhibition of needlepoint on display.
There is so much more to see; I make notes for my return visit:
Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum (49 Union Street, 508-228-1177, https://www.nantucketlightshipbasketmuseum.org )
Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum (158 Polpis Road, 508-228-2505, http://eganmaritime.org/shipwreck-lifesaving-museum/. The museum is located at some distance from the town; you can obtain a free Wave bus pass to the Museum at Visitor Services at 25 Federal Street in downtown Nantucket. Nantucket Regional Transit Authority is on 20 South Water Street not far from the Whaling Museum)
Cisco Brewers (5 Bartlett Farm Road, 508-325-5929, http://ciscobrewers.com/ . The brewery operates its own free shuttle, noon to 6:30 pm daily on the half-hour, from Visitor Services at 25 Federal Street downtown.)
Bartlett’s Farm (33 Bartlett’s Farm Road, 508-228-9403, https://bartlettsfarm.com/; located about 10-minute walk from Cisco Brewers.)
The ever-shifting sandbars lurking beneath the waters around Nantucket have caused between 700 and 800 shipwrecks, making lighthouses necessary navigational aids. Besides the Sankaty Head Lighthouse which we have seen there are two others that are worthwhile visiting:
Brant Point Lighthouse, standing at the entrance to Nantucket harbor, is the second oldest lighthouse in North America, first built in 1746 (the oldest is Boston Harbor Light c. 1716). Over the years, it has been moved and rebuilt more times than any other lighthouse in the country. The present lighthouse is the ninth one built on Brant Point. It is 26 feet tall wooden tower topped with a fifth-order Fresnel lens that was built in 1901. Still in active use, it is owned by the US Coast Guard and closed to the public, but you can visit the grounds (www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime).
Great Point Lighthouse (also called Nantucket Lighthouse), New England’s most powerful lighthouse, sits at the extreme northeast end of the island. A wooden tower was quickly built and the station with a light was activated in October 1784 (and destroyed by fire in 1816). The following year a stone tower was erected which stood until toppled in a storm in March 1984. The Lighthouse was rebuilt again in 1986, the stone tower was built to replicate the old one, and still remains in operation today. Modern additions include solar panels to recharge the light’s batteries, and a sheet pile foundation and 5-foot thick concrete mat to help withstand erosion.
Nantucket also offers miles upon miles of beach open to all. And thanks in large part to the early efforts of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, nearly half of the island’s 30,000 acres are protected. A network of beautiful cycling paths wind through the island.
Contact the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce, Zero Main Street, Nantucket, MA 02554, 508-228-3643.
Now it is time to return to the Grand Caribe. (they make it very easy to step from the launch boat onto the stern of the ship through an open bay).
I’m back in time for the farewell cocktail reception, an open bar with delicious hors d’oeuvres. Dinner is lobster tail or prime rib (both fantastic); vanilla gelato or crème brule.
We are eating dinner when the fog starts rolling in most dramatically. Within minutes, it is difficult to see even the boats anchored nearby. The foghorn blasts every few minutes – which is funny as we sit in the lounge watching the movie, “Overboard,” when the blasts seem coordinated. (Jasmine, the cruise director, has opted for this romantic comedy instead of the movie “Perfect Storm.”)
It will be a nine-hour sail back to Warren, Rhode Island where the Blount Small Ship Adventures is based. Captain Patrick Moynihan tells us to anticipate three to four foot seats for about an hour when we reach Rhode Island waters.
Blount Small Ship Adventures, 461 Water Street, Warren, Rhode Island 02885, 800-556-7450 or 401-247-0955, info@blountsmallshipadventures.com, www.blountsmallshipadventures.com).
AdventureSmith’s Small Ship Cruises Still Offer Availability for 2018 Holidays
TRUCKEE, CA – If your perfect dream for a holiday escape is sand between your toes – or monkeys swinging from the trees, AdventureSmith Explorations has a selection of small ship cruises timed for Thanksgiving through Christmas.
The Pacific Northwest is one of the world’s top wine regions. Here an active 8-day Rivers of Wine cruise on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers offers guests from mid October through mid December 2018 all the stuffing they can eat, washed down with regional wines, with samplings aplenty at local vineyards, and a chance to inhale a bit of the history of early pioneers on the Oregon Trail. The onboard sommelier and guest wine experts enlighten along the way. The 90-guest S.S. Legacy travels roundtrip from Portland, OR, and into Washington to visit viticultural areas. The per person double rate is from $3,745. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/rivers-wine-history-cruise-columbia-snake-river
Hawaii brings the opportunity to switch out turkey for a traditional Pa’ina (feast) on an 8-day Hawaiian Seascapes cruise aboard the 36-passenger, luxury motor yacht Safari Explorer that dips on and off Moloka’i, Lana’i, Maui and the Big Island of Hawai’i. Folklore and culture are mixed in with snorkeling, paddleboarding and kayaking. The per person rate is from $3,995 for departures from early November 2018 to early April 2019. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/hawaiian-seascapes-hawaii-cruise-uncruise-molokai-lanai-honomalino-safari-explorer
Travelers can fly away from home-based holiday jungles to experience Costa Rica & Panama’s Rainforest on the 66-passenger Safari Voyager for a 9-day Unveiled Wonders: Costa Rica & Panama Canal cruise that stops for hiking, paddleboarding, snorkeling and kayaking near lush jungles, national parks, wildlife refuges, beautiful beaches and pristine islands. The per person rate is from $4,595 for departures throughout the year (except in May and October) that begin early November 2018. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/unveiled-wonders-costa-rica-panama-canal-small-ship-cruise-uncruise
Baja, Mexico offers the vibrant blue hues of the Sea of Cortez for snorkeling with whale sharks and hiking through giant Cardon cacti while on an 8-day Baja’s Bounty cruise aboard the 88-guest Safari Endeavour. Seasonal departures begin Dec. 22, 2018, and continue through the end of March 2019. The per person rate is from $3,795. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/bajas-bounty
The historic, 8-guest Westward comes with a 12-day itinerary, Westward Voyages in the Sea of Cortez, that ventures into remote coves and anchors near sea lions. The per person rate is from $3,500 for seasonal departures that begin Dec. 14, 2018, and conclude April 2, 2019. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/westward-voyages-in-the-sea-of-cortez
Baja Intimate Insider, a 7-day land trip based out of the Pacific’s gem of a beach town, Todos Santos, combines accommodation in colorful boutique hotels with active adventures in the day. Night brings dining under the stars at some of the best restaurants south of the border. The per person rate is from $3,500. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/baja-intimate-insider
The high-water season (best for wildlife viewing) in the Brazilian or Peruvian Amazon coincides with the Holidays and the 5- or 7-day Voyage to the Heart of the Amazon aboard the 18-guest Tucano, which offers access to isolated corners of the jungle for extensive explorations far beyond civilization. Deep in the belly of the primitive forest participants hike, canoe and kayak through an expansive UNESCO World Heritage reserve. A 5-day program is from $1,750 per person, with departures throughout the year. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/voyage-heart-amazon-brazil
Other cruise options in this region include a traditional riverboat, the 30-guest Amatista, or a luxury vessel in the stylish Delfin fleet: Delfin I Amazon River Cruise with 8 guests, Delfin II Amazon River Cruise with 28 guests and Delfin III Amazon River Cruise with 43 guests.
A traditional Indonesian sailing vessel, the 24-guest Ombak Putih or 14-guest Katharina, sail through Indonesia’s Remote Archipelago Raja Ampat rife with endemic ocean species, unique limestone islands heaped with primitive forest, dramatic waterfalls and intriguing caves. The 10-day Sailing Indonesia: Jewels of Raja Ampat cruise is from $5,350 per person, double, with departures from late November 2018 through the end of January 2019. See: https://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/indonesia-raja-ampat-cruise
Still want a white Christmas? You are in luck as there are still spots available for expeditions to Antarctica. For details on cruises around the White Continent and on all of AdventureSmith’s small ship cruises worldwide, day-to-day itineraries, availability and reservations, phone: 866-575-2875 toll-free or visit http://www.adventuresmithexplorations.com/.
AdventureSmith Explorations was founded in 2003. A recognized leader in small ship cruising, in 2012 owner Todd Smith joined the ranks of Condé Nast Traveler’s prestigious world’s Top Travel Specialists list as a leading expert on small ship expeditions.
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