HISTARCH Archives -- September 2005 (#145)

HISTARCH Archives -- September 2005 (#145): "I do think when archaeologists are doing that they should be into walls. I worked on some backyard disturbance of the Captain Brewster Hawkins House in Setauket, NY, a shipbuilder, chandler, who restarted shipbuilding industry there, built 'Wanderer' a luxury yacht, (and others) sold it to a Louisiana cotton merchants agent in 1858, after his son Thomas captained it for a year. It was then outfitted with water tanks in Port Jefferson and reported to have been boarded by a British 'slavery blockade' officer off the coast of Africa. It picked up 600 Africans, 400 survivors landed at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1858. (Wikipedia) One of the walls upstairs, had some graffiti 'Down with Popery' which was interesting. Lately I've been thinking the water tanks were also mixed with maple 'sirup' (early 20th century spelling in a NY State Agricultural manual). I have also seen the paint section for reconstruction of the so-called 'Tweed Courthouse' (NYC completed by Mayor Fernando Wood) before it was to be a museum of the City, instead of the current mayor ordered Dept. of Education headquarters. Quite a few coats there. Another wall of the old Congregational church whose Stockaders I used to camp with as a tyrol, had the pencil marks of the carpenters, where they did their math. Interestingly, from Setauket, they built it with some of the techniques of shipbuilding."