🚢🛳Essex Shipbuilding Museum Trip🚢🚢

Our class went to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum on June 4th. Our class learned lots of things about building ships and shipbuilding terms. We were split into four groups. Each group rotated to four stations and learned new and different things about shipbuilding that extended their knowledge about the Northeast.

The first station was the steam room. We learned about a ships keel, frame, and planks. A keel is the front of the ship. The frame is the rib-like part that holds the ship together. The planks are the wooden boards that act as the ships' skin. The groups steamed wood from a steam box and used a "C" clamp to attach the plank to the ship's frame.

In the buoyancy room, groups learned about surface area, density, and buoyancy. Surface area is how much room is in the boat. Density is how dense the boat is. Buoyancy is how buoyant the ship is. Groups made aluminum foil ships to see how many rocks would fit in the boat before it sinks.

In the trunnel room, groups learned about trunnels and bull ropes. A bull rope is used to tie down a ship. A trunnel (tree nail) is used to put the ship together. The groups used white pine wood and a wooden hammer to make trunnels as a souvenir to take to class.   

In the knot station, groups watched a video on shipbuilding. After the video, the groups learned how to tie bull knots, which are used to tie ships to a dock so they don't float away.

A huge thank you to our chaperones Mrs. Merrill, Mrs. Bernard, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Osterfield. Another big thanks to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum employees.