Two Years Before The Mast, Whirligigs, Leviathan

Item: It looks like a leviathan theme with the mermaid riding it's water spout will just about encompass the activity for this whirligig. The first photo shows the whale cut outs made from a treated lumber 6" wide board. The second photo shows how the space between the boards will allow the mermaid to rise and at the back the tail will turn and wave.


While at sea on picking themes for the whirligig, the summer heat put me inside reading the book "Two Years Before The Mast". This is a young Harvard student taking a Boston merchant ship assignment in the forecastle (before the mast) due to poor eyesight and the book that came out of his journal. In his early twenties on a voyage who's object was to gather 40,000 cow hides on the coast of what is now California but was than Indian and Spanish-Mexican occupied and ranched, he returned in his early forties to find that in San Fran where in 35 was on board house and in 36 one adobe house (plus the Presidio) now in 1859 were over 100,000 population because of the gold rush. The old "Salty Dogs" of sails and and halyards and ships made of wood and men of steel were no more.
Turning from "Salty Dogs" to the whirligig known as "Saw Dog" at the repair and conservation shop here is some progress for the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park Project. The sawing men and dog with the wagging tail is now mounted on a roll around fixture so it can be rolled out and displayed outside. And more work on the facility with the pressure washer to remove stains and mold and mildew in the display area