(no subject)

[hadesbabe]

Gary took me a couple of weeks ago to the Science Center to see the exhibition of the Whydah recovery.  It was pretty awe-inducing.  But for that storm, I think Bellamy would be ranked with Blackbeard as a "household pirate name."  We weren't supposed to take pictures, unfortunately (though there were no docents around to make sure people obeyed that rule-- um, *cough*), but the exhibit opened strongly with the bell from the ship, the recovery of which proved that the wreck was truly the Whydah.  Toward the end of the exhibit they had several concretions and displays explaining how they recovered the artifacts without destroying them, and without them deteriorating as soon as they hit air.  The concretions and the bell itself were all either submerged in tanks or kept constantly wet; everything else was displayed in the open or regular museum cases.  It was fascinating to see what survived (gunpowder, brass, wood) vs. what was simply gone (steel-- they had several hilts, for instance, with no trace of the blade they once held except the cavity for the tang), and the literal sea change in the iron pieces that made them look like black petrified wood.  I've read quite a bit on the Golden Age of piracy, but seeing the artifacts, the walk-through recreations of sections of the ship, was at once rousing and humbling.  I suppose that makes it the definition of sublime. :)

Oh, and a word in general on exhibitions like this-- ALWAYS get the audio tour.  We've done that now for Body Worlds, the special effects/audioanimatronics exhibit, and this one (and probably others I'm forgetting), and they all added immeasurably to the experiences.  Totally worth it.