May 7 NPS Volunteer Day

Nearly forty volunteers chose Ernestina for their project during the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Volunteer Day on May 7, 2011.

There were three projects: clean and prep the ship for June’s haul-out, scrape and paint the dories and scrape and oil the spars on the dock. The usual crew was joined by a group of volunteers and community folks organized by Rich Drolet and MarDee Xifaras.  With Annie McDowell’s guidance, this group did yeoman’s work removing and storing the contents of the ship in preparation for the haul-out

and washing down the aft cabin and fish hold.

THANK YOU!

Up on the pier two crews worked on the dories and the spars.

the spars had to be scraped and sanded

New Bedford City Councillor Joseph Lopes scraping loose paint

caulking the dory seams

The before and after photos are AMAZING.

Alison Robb & Chuck Smiler priming dory

oiling fore-boom and topmast

oiling spars and gaff jaws

oiling gaff jaws done!

Beautiful!

Thanks to Manny Silva of DCR for keeping everything rolling.  There was always a question to answer or something else to get.  Manny was busy all morning!

We took a break for photos to enter the NTHP “This Place Matters” contest.  (Exciting news coming soon!)

At 12:30 everyone headed up William St. for a cook-out lunch provided for all the volunteers at the Visitor’s Center.

THANK YOU New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park for organizing and supporting this Volunteer Day.  We were glad to “Lend a Hand”