On June 15, 2023, the Museum of Old Newbury purchased a slate tablet from an auction in Cincinnati, Ohio, a notebook-paper sized piece of thin stone, double-sided and framed in walnut. Notes kept on slate were ephemeral. Slates were used to keep the "rough log", and they were erased after the notes were copied down into the ship's official log.
This slate deck log became, accidentally, a permanent record of the last moments of a man’s life, and revealed a gripping story of love, loss, murder, and bicycling in the Himalayas. Intrigued? Come hear the whole wild story and see this piece of ultimate ephemera for yourself.
The story of the Elcano has been revealed through a series of partnerships. Lowell's Boat Shop executive director Graham McKay and MOON director Bethany Groff Dorau worked together to decipher the deck log, while the Custom House Maritime Museum lent a copy of a journal that revealed another Pritchard - the Captain's wife Emily - as she made her way to Calcutta and home again.
Join us for a Dark and Stormy evening with maritime-themed refreshments. Members of Lowell's Boat Shop and the Museum of Old Newbury attend free, non-members are $10.