Day 23
Grand Tour of the East Coast

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FAQ		 While Day 22 was merely dry and partly sunny, Day 23 was actually warm. With Ted gone, and Bethany studying for her last final the next day, I was back to studying alone. Armed with Bethany's T pass (called a "CharlieCard," presumably after the river), I set off for the Charlestown naval yards again. After sidetracking to see a fairly coherent "audio-visual presentation" about the Battle of Bunker Hill, I proceeded on to the USS Constitution. It was finally open, and I got to take a tour given by one of the ship's crew members. The crew are naval officers just like on any other ship, except that they wear early-1800s uniforms and give tours to civilians.

The tour covered the main deck, gun deck, and crew quarters deck. (The bottom deck remained unseen, but I don't suppose there was anything to see there anyway.) Everything was in pristine condition, like it had never seen any use. But this ship had been around the world and fought Barbary Corsairs and the British. The ship's career is impressive to say the least; that it has survived mostly intact for two centuries is no small miracle.
Starboard side view of the USS Constitution.
 Front of the Constitution.


Naval officer/tourguide.
 Naval artillery.

I wandered around for a while, photographing and filming the ship from all angles. The sails were not installed, so the masts and yardarms looked a little bare. But I'll have to be satisfied with that. The Constitution is one of many museum ships I have visited. Perhaps it is not the largest or most accessible, but it is the most historic.

On the other side of the pier is moored the decidedly less famous USS Cassin Young, a World War II destroyer. I proceeded thence, not knowing if I would find it very interesting after the Constitution. But I did. I took a tour through the restricted areas of the ship, not open for tourists to wander at will. I got to see the bridge and the gun loading room, among other things. This ship, like the Constitution, is kept in very good condition, except that the Cassin Young's steward is the National Park Service. Most museum ships are not as well-maintained.

Bow of the USS Cassin Young.
 Forward guns.
 Anti-aircraft guns.

I stopped briefly at the Constitution museum, which I had seen most of the day before. I wanted to see a stunning 1/24 scale model of the ship which I had missed my first time there. It was built over a space of more than three decades; I can't imagine spending so much time on a single project. The longest hobby project I've ever undertaken is Apollo-LES, and that was only a little longer than four years. Now I get antsy if any project lasts longer than a few weeks.

Already my time was running short, but I felt I would have just enough time to visit the Bunker Hill Monument at the end of the Freedom Trail. It commemorates the Battle of Bunker Hill, one of the Continental Army's resounding defeats, fought on this site on June 17, 1775. Curiously, the hill on which the battle took place is actually named Breed's Hill. Purportedly, the Continental soldiers were confused about where they were during the fight, and thus named the battle after Bunker Hill. The mistake is excusable, I suppose, if only because "Battle of Breed's Hill" does not sound very heroic.

The edifice atop pseudo-Bunker Hill is a granite obelisk that looks like a scale model of the Washington Monument. This is not exactly a fair comparison, since the Bunker Hill Monument was completed 41 years before the obelisk in DC.
Statue of William Prescott, leader of the colonial forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

I was suprised not to have to get a ticket or security check before entering the monument. I just stepped inside. The monument is not big enough to fit an elevator of any size, so I got to ascend the old-fashioned way: by spiral staircase. Stephansdom's Südturm was a while ago, and I had forgotten how exhausting climbing towers can be. It's nothing like climbing, say, Bear Peak over Boulder. In the outdoors the view changes, but ascending a spiral staircase is a dizzying monotony.

Arriving at last at the top, I discovered that I had the place to myself. I enjoyed commanding views of the naval yard, the Charles River, and the Boston skyline. Off in the distance, beyond Logan Airport, I could see the gleaming blue of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a tantalyzing sight.

Downtown Boston, as viewed from the Bunker Hill Monument. On the right is the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, a product of Boston's infamous "Big Dig."
 Museum ships at the Charlestown Naval Yard.
 Logan Airport (named after my potential relative General John A.) and the Atlantic Ocean.

After supper at a tiny falafel shop at Central Square in Cambridge, I wandered around MIT to see if there was anything I had missed on earlier explorations. Besides some odd-looking student housing, there wasn't much. Alongside the Charles River, I sketched the skyline and the Harvard Bridge (which, strangely enough, leads directly into MIT).
Sketch of Boston's Back Bay.

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previous:
Day 22
Freedom Trail 		Grand Tour
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Day 24
Assorted Boston sights

All materials herein copyright  2007 by Willy Logan
willy@wilhelm-aerospace.org