Sunday
A little bumpy during the night, but we sailed safely into Charleston, SC at about 7 am Sunday morning. It rained a bit during the night, but the weather was promising at least as the sun was visible when we got up. It turned out to be a very nice day with temperatures in the mid 70’s. We had breakfast in the World Cafe and then headed ashore for our tour of Charleston. It’s the first time either of us has been here.
The history of Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the longest and most diverse of any community in the United States, spanning hundreds of years of physical settlement beginning in 1670. Charleston was one of leading cities in the South from the colonial era to the Civil War in the 1860s. The city grew wealthy through the export of rice and, later, sea island cotton and it was the base for many wealthy merchants and landowners. Charleston was the capital of American slavery. Sea island cotton still exits but is no longer in commercial production.
Charleston, located on a peninsula into the Atlantic, was originally Charlestown and was a walled city. The name was changed to Charleston in 1783. Why? No one seems to know. Some people have advanced the hypothesis that the spelling was altered to conform to the customary local pronunciation. The “w” in “town” was practically silent in the local dialect, and the act of incorporation provided a convenient opportunity to change the spelling officially to reflect the local pronunciation. Thus “CharlesTOWN” became “CHARLESton,” or perhaps even “CHAHLston.” Good enough for me.
We bussed downtown and did a walking tour with a delightful guide (pictured below with Elaine) Who has heard of Henroy Timrod?. Maybe we’ll go back for the time capsule opening in 2061.
A little history lesson:
There are lots of delightful houses in Charleston. They are seemingly built sideways and are either singles or doubles. Why? And porches are called piazzas. That brought back memories because when we lived in Chelsea, MA back in 1946-1951 (I was nine when we moved to Melrose), we called the porch the piazza. (And we ate supper at night, not dinner – dinner was a Sunday or holiday thing and served earlier). See Elaine in the gallery below?
See the Spanish Moss in the trees below? It’s everywhere. And it’s not Spanish and it’s not moss. What is it then? See here.
The highlight of the walking tour was a visit to the Heyward-Washington House. Yes, George slept here for a week. We walked up the stairs inside holding the same bannister that George Washington used back in 1791. The owner, Thomas Heyward, was a signer of the Declaration on Independence.
And we stopped to see the Charleston Hat Man. How many hats can you find in his picture? Note that one ear is a confederate soldier cap and the other a Union soldier cap.
After our walking tour, we were back to the bus for a drive other parts of Charleston including the beautiful campus of the College of Charleston. It’s tough taking pictures while riding a bus, so I took only one. It’s the back of the Joseph Manigualt House. Why the bricked up windows? I don’t know. In the UK many ears ago windows were bricked up to avoid paying the window tax, but that doesn’t seem to have been a reason in SC. By the way, the house looks better from the front, but we drove by the back.
And finally it was back to the ship in time for reading and naps before happy hour and dinner. Dinner was in the World Cafe and was good as always. No pictures and no details. You’ve read enough for today. See you tomorrow, a sea day on the way to Norfolk, VA.
And, oh, by the way – we had our first Viking passenger casualty today. A woman from our tour fell, hit her head, and was eventually carted off in an ambulance. Word is that she is OK and hopefully will be back on board when we sail at 6 PM. Casualties seemed to be an everyday occurance on our Viking sail from Vancouver through Alaska to Japan last year.
Oops, another oh by the way. I was sitting on our balcony with binoculars in hand and noticed an island (or more like a sandbar) with the French flag flying. Turns out that it’s Castle Pinckney, a small masonry fortification constructed by the United States government in 1810. It was used very briefly as a prisoner-of-war camp (six weeks) and artillery position during the American Civil War. Why the French flag? See here.
OK, one last OBTW. Also looking out from our balcony while docked in Charleston, you can see off in the distance what looked like an aircraft carrier. Turns out it the USS Yorktown, a US Navy aircraft carrier that served in WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam as well being used to pluck returning Apollo 8 astronauts out of the ocean.
