Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum

Whaling? In a small town on the north shore of Long Island, New York? Yes and yes! Whalers departed from Cold Spring Harbor to begin whale hunting trips on the open sea that could sometimes take up to four to five years. These whaling brigs were factory ships that processed, at sea, huge whale carcasses, extracting whale oil used to light homes and lubricate machines. When a whale was sighted, a 30 foot whaleboat with a six man crew was lowered into the water and the hunt was on in earnest. The crew's job was to harpoon the whale, kill it and tow it back to the whaler.



The Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum has, as the centerpiece of its collection, one of 10 remaining whaleboats left in the United States. This nineteenth century whaleboat belonged to one of America's last whaling brigs, the Daisy. The Daisy Whaleboat, made of white oak and cedar is fully equipped with all its original tools used on the hunt from harpoons and lances to ropes and much more. The whaleboat was last used in 1912 and is in great shape. Surrounding the whaleboat are photos of the crew at work taken by Robert Murphy, a scientist who sailed aboard the Daisy during its 1912-1913 trip. Murphy was also a catalyst in founding the museum. He donated the Daisy whaleboat to the town of Cold Spring Harbor with the proviso that they build a whaling museum around it.

A film shown at the museum documents the whale hunt from start to finish with vintage footage. The museum also has on display a huge try pot used to melt blubber into oil as well as many examples of sailors' scrimshaw and other items pertinent to whaling.

The Whitaker Museum & the Museo Saline Ettore e Inferza

Just before a trip to Sicily in 2009, I read Francine Prose’s, Sicilian Odyssey,* filled with her impressions of and experiences in Sicily. It was in chapter 7, "The Wonders of the World", that I first learned of the Greek statue “Il Giovanetto di Mozia” (Young Man of Mozia). Mozia, now called San Pantaleo, is the ancient name for the tiny island off the coast between Trapani and Marsala. You have to take a small ferry boat to get there and it’s well worth the trip. The statue is in the small Whitaker Museum. So on a very windy, cold day I found myself on Mozia.

According to my Lonely Planet guidebook on Sicily written by Vesna Maric, James Whitaker bought the island, built a villa there and also indulged in his interest in archaeology. Mozia, it turned out was a Phoenician settlement and Whittaker uncovered an impressive amount of Phoenician artifacts that are on display in the museum.


Maric also points out that it is the “…best-preserved Phoenician site in the world as the Romans utterly destroyed Carthage…” (p. 120). This is so typical of Sicily where there is so much history to be uncovered. Greeks, Normans, Spaniards, North Africans and others all were forces on the island and traces of their cultures are still here to see.

But it is the statue, Il Giovanetto di Mozia that is the gem here. It is of an androgenous, young man with hand on hip wearing a clinging and revealing garment made of some almost diaphanous fabric. As Prose writes, “…we stop short in front of the ‘Ephebus of Mozia,’ the fifth-century B.C. statue so arresting and shockingly beautiful that it occurs to me that, two hours from now, the ferry could return and find us still standing here, staring at the sculpture.”(p.98)

As she states, “There is nothing anywhere like the ‘Young Man of Mozia’. (p.99) Prose is absolutely right on both counts! I’m so glad I read this book before I went to Sicily. I would have missed this museum and its gem.

*Sicilian Odyssey by Francine Prose (2003) is part of the National Geographic Directions series written by respected authors. A smattering of authors who have written for this series are Jamaica Kincaid (Nepal), Louise Erdrich (Ontario), Susanna Moore (Hawaii), Oliver Sacks (Oaxaca) and William Least Heat-Moon (Western Ireland).



Steps from where the ferry docks on the mainland, is the Museo Saline Ettore e Inferza, a museum about the sea salt industry of the area. The museum is housed in a converted windmill that grinds the salt. Tools used to extract the salt from the water are on display as well as a fascinating film about how salt is harvested from the rectangular lagoons of water visible along the coast. Well worth a visit!















I was in Sicily in late April and early May and although the weather we encountered at the beginning of our trip was rainy, cold and windy the incredible wildflower display that colors the landscape in spring made up for any hardship. Flowers of every color and variety sometimes commingled and sometimes growing alone made us stop and marvel at their beauty.