L'Hermione

A bit of a treat in the area for a couple of days: L'Hermione -- a full size reconstruction of the frégate légère Hermione, which, in 1780 carried over Lafayette with the secret news that he had secured French reinforcements (5,500 men and 5 frigates) for Washington. Lots of people (including an unusually large French contingent) out and about looking at and taking pix of the ship. I've added a full pic in the extras.

I learned a ton of quick facts from one of the staff at hand:
- dead reckoning is actually derived from 'deduced reckoning' so the correct spelling is 'ded reckoning', the art of estimating one's position. We saw the peg boards used to that effect, given that most people didn't read or write back in the days.
- how the term 'knots' came about to measure speed.
- the original meaning of a 'rolling shot': when sailors had a complaint, they couldn't go directly to the captain (or other officers) for fear of being hanged on the spot. So they developed a trick to signal an issue: they kicked a small canon ball out of its receptacle and left it rolling across the deck -- something I'm told makes a heck of a racket! That allowed for an inquiry to begin (I guess when the captain got a headache from the noise?) :)
- why whistling in theaters is not allowed. To be heard over the din of noises on a boat, the task master used a whistle (a boatswain) to issue orders. At the same time, when sailors didn't sail, they often worked in theaters to raise or lower sets onto the stage given their skills on rigging sails, following boatswain calls. An unfortunate whistle in the theater might release a set on stage inadvertently.

Fun day altogether :)