Schooner Days in Olde Towne Portsmouth: "A picture is Worth a Thousand Words."

 The old and wise adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" and "a picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound" defines the purpose of this blog. Simply stated, I will never be able to describe to you what I can show you through my images of Schooner Days past.  And, as Napolean Bonaparte once stated "A good sketch is better than a long speech"...especially since we're entertaining over 40 schooners, so scroll down and take a look at what you can discover for yourself this October 15 and 16 at the 2010 Schooner Days in Olde Towne Portsmouth, Virginia. Make sure you bring your camera!

The Schooner "Sultana" from Chestertown, Maryland

A red star decorates the bow of the 'Liberty Clipper' from Boston, Massachusetts

The American flag hangs from the stern of the A J Meerwald with the Mystic Whaler in the background during Schooner Days in Olde Towne Portsmouth, Virginia.

The 'Pride of Baltimore II' is tied along the Olde Towne Portsmouth seawall

A close-up image of the Pride of Baltimore II nameboard.

The schooner Liberty Clipper gets her masts slushed before departing Olde Towne Portsmouth

The schooner Liberty Clipper gets her masts slushed before departing Olde Towne Portsmouth. Usually, it’s the youngest (lightest) member of the crew who gets outfitted, then strapped into a boatswain’s chair (boson’s chair, really just a board strung between some rope). Then this person is hoisted to the top of the mast with a bucket full of slush. These days, slush is not meat grease but Vaseline petroleum jelly. They start at the top, smearing Vaseline all over the mast. When a section is finished, they yell to the deck, where someone standing by lowers them a few feet.

“SLUSH FUND”-slush was the unpromising name for fat scraped off the top of the barrels of meat. The crew found it perfect for greasing masts to make sail hoisting easier and for preserving leather fittings. The cook, unhappy about this, would secret it in his ‘slush fund’ and stowed it away.  He typically sold it ashore, mostly to candle makers and people in the fish and chip trade.

"Beware of the Attack Flamingo?' Really!

'Mystic Whaler's' port light.

Wooden mast hoops used on vintage schooners.

Trailboard of the Schooner 'Lady Maryland."

The eagle figurehead from the Freedom Schooner "Amistad.'

A gathering at Schooners in Olde Towne Portsmouth's High Street Landing.

American flag flies in front of the Schooner 'Liberty Clipper.'

Schooner masts and rigging  decorate the seawall of Virginia's historic seaport- Portsmouth.

Silhouettes of schooner masts and rigging at the end of the day. Time to move up High Street to the restaurants and pubs. See you there.

These are just a few of the pictures from Schooner Days past and there's plenty more to come. So bookmark this blog and please plan to come and visit us at Portsmouth Virginia's Schooner Days. All photographs were taken by Joe Elder. Have Schooner Days pictures to share. Send them to cjosephelder@gmail.com.  See you there!