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Puzzling Picture

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Good morning everyone. Another busy week has come and gone here at the global headquarters. Katie and Ali prepped and painted windows and the beige cabin skylight covers. They also painted the bottoms of the yawl boats with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine to help keep them from drying out. Jen and the aforementioned elves spent yesterday getting our annual holiday calendar ready to mail. I have another e-newsletter ready to go. If you haven't signed up for our e-newsletter visit the home page and get yourself on the mailing list. My day job this week has been helping a local contractor build and install a platform for the probate judge's bench down at the county courthouse. With a maple floor and all white oak panelling it looks quite good if I do say so myself.

The accompanying photograph here was given to us recently by a passenger though I can't for the life of me remember who. Please claim responsibility if this is yours. Mary Day is rafted up to the Hawkins' Chesapeake Bay buyboat "Columbia" which they used during the off-season to transport goods to the islands. Now I assume the fine gentleman in the foreground is waving and not giving us a silly face. The photograph gives me a real sense of the changes Mary Day has been through. No more spars painted buff. She no longer berths at what is now the fisherman's float in Camden. The staysail used to be loose footed and the forestay passed through the spike bowsprit. The shrouds have ratlines on opposing sides instead of the ratboards we have now. How many other changes can you see? There are quite few still to list but you will need a real careful eye to find them. What is different about the hull? How did guests get aboard? Ok Will Shortz... get cracking on this puzzle!

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.
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Comments

Jim said…
Great picture.

I see no lifeline, which maybe indicates they valued the passengers a little lower back then.

And a net under the headrig, which indicates they cared more for their crew? Or the crew was a little more slipshod.

There's a plank going to the boarding ladder.
December 11, 2010 at 9:08 AM
Tinker said…
That is an interesting picture of the old Mary Day. I'm sure I have missed several differences, including a difference you mentioned about the hull, but here goes for a few:

All the colors are different. Chain plates were painted white not black, anchor red and not black etc.
Anchor stowed with bottom end of the shank on the rail, not a fluke.
No nameboard on the bow.
Sail gathering net under bowsprit.
Strange grease pattern on the masts.
Something different about the deckhouse aft of the head.
No davits on port side.
No life lines.
Unidentified structure near the anchor winch.
No black waterline boot top.
No topmast stays. Maybe no topmasts?
Aft mooring bit painted black on top.
No radar antenna. (not surprising)
I didn't see the old man's rocker by the wheel.
December 12, 2010 at 9:43 AM
Alton said…
Everything looks all ahoo. The scuppers do not look right, they should be bigger with a half-round top, with a cove detail above and with the hull finish different above. Also, something does not look right in the area of the heads, maybe the newer ones were not in place. There is someone opening what looks like a hatch or something just forward of the cabin window on the St'bd side. Of course with no jib-boom, the martingale and associated stays are missing. The Captain's office appears to be more of a half trapezoid affair. It appears maybe the lazarette is missing, also the rail cap looks different, but I cannot see enough detail. Many small changes in the rigging. To board it would appear one must use the ladder after a ride in the peapod or canoe looking craft. It appears also there is facility for a gangplank.
December 13, 2010 at 10:58 AM
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