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| September 21, 2007 Still working on George
Washington's Secret Navy. Getting pretty near the end. The most valuable
resource for writing about the naval action of the American Revolution is
the venerable Naval Documents of the American Revolution, currently
being compiled and edited by Dr. Michael Crawford at the Naval Historical
Center. Dr. Crawford has been a great help to me in this project.
In the picture opposite is my copy of Volume II of NDAR. I've used
a few sticky notes to mark the pages. |
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| August 23, 2007
I'm also still working on the wattle and daub house at the Maine
Maritime Museum. The house is a replica of the Vice Admiral's House
built at the Popham Colony in 1607. We don't know who the vice admiral
was, but the archeological evidence suggests someone of wealth lived
there. The house my volunteers and I are building is earth-fast (no
foundation) wattle and daub construction. The roof will be thatch. Here are
some photos of the construction. To the right is me in costume, pretty
dirty from having just daubed the walls. Below left is a close-up of the
wall showing the woven branches that make up the "wattle" and the
clay/dirt mixture that makes the "daub". Below right is the house with
the rafters in place. |
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| July 26, 2007 Despite the craziness of the
summer, I still am managing to get in one of my favorite activities,
which is barbecuing. Here I am in our garden. Everything is under
control. I'm a professional. My daughter is hiding from either the
camera, or the smoke, or the pending disaster on the grill, not sure
which.
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| July 4, 2007
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Last year we started a new tradition in Harpswell, led
by Dave Hackett, head of the
Harpswell Historical Society. On the Fourth of July, a few of us
assembled (peaceably) at the 1757 Harpswell Meeting House to read the
Declaration of Independence on the spot where it was first read to
Harpswell citizens more than two centuries ago. For our second year, the
crowd and our periods clothing were much improved. In fact, we even
organized a local militia, who stood guard and fired a volley of musket
fire after the reading. To the left in the picture is Sam Alexander,
whose ancestor was one of the original subscribers to the Meeting House.
Next is yours truly, Dave Hackett, and Nelson Barter, who'll agree to
anything if it involves buying a new gun. |
| June 25, 2007 Okay, I'm supposed to be writing
this book about George Washington, but I'm having so much fun working on
the Popham Colony House that it's hard to keep at it. Here's the house
in frame, as it stands as of now. There's more framing to be done and
then we'll do a course of thatch to protect the wattle and daub walls,
and then we start wattle and daubing.
This is a replica of a home at Fort St. George, the Popham Colony's
fort, that was known as the Vice Admiral's House. The archeological work
did not show the remains of any structure (not necessarily a surprise)
but did uncover artifacts associated with someone of wealth. We're not
sure who the Vice Admiral was.
If you are in the area, be sure to stop in to the museum and
see the fine display that has been set up concerning the Popham Colony.
And, of course, the Vice Admiral's House.
Remember, Jamestown was not the only settlement in 1607!
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| May 8, 2007
Here I am at Plimoth Plantation in
Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the real experts in wattle and daub
construction were kind enough to give me some pointers. |
A lot going on these days. A month or so ago I began
working at the
Maine Maritime Museum on a part-time basis. I decided to do that for
a few reasons, mainly my dedication to maritime history, my real
affection for that museum in particular and my deep love of a regular
cash flow. I have been going to the Maine Maritime Museum since I was
little, since the museum was little more than a handful of dusty ship
models and dioramas housed in an old Victorian house on the other side
of Bath. Now it sits on the site of the old Percy and Small Shipyard on
the banks of the Kennebec River, one of the most beautiful places in
Maine. The first project I'm involved with is the construction of a
replica of one of the houses built for the Popham Colony, a little-know
settlement on the Maine coast (just down the road a piece, as we say
here) in 1607. For those of you good at math, you will note that this
year is the 400th anniversary of that failed colony. The house will be
wattle and daub construction, just like they did 400 years ago, and
volunteers and visitors will get a chance to help put it together.
As it happens, the museum contacted me to work on this project even
before I went to work there, based on my thorough knowledge of
sod house construction. I assured
them I was also Maine's foremost authority on wattle and daub
construction. And they believed me.
If you are in Bath, Maine, be sure to stop by. And I will, of
course, be posting pictures of the wattle and daub, ad nauseam. |
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November 07, 2007
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