Part 11 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Nantucket Harbour. Image from Flickr by Ethan Oringel [CC BY 2.0] Sunday 12.5.29 I left Nantucket by the 1.15 boat and watched it as long as I could. I wish I could have spent even another day there. I…
Author: Nathanael Hodge
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: Nantucket Windmill
Part 10 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Nantucket Windmill before 1885 Saturday 11.5.29 Next morning, Saturday, I met Mr. Fuller as arranged and we walked up to the mill which he unlocked and left me with a flash light, and instructions to return the…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: To Nantucket
Part 9 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Friday 10.5.29 On Friday the 10th I took the 7 am. bus to Fall River. The whole of the country on Newport Island is remarkably pleasant. A fine coast line, looking over to the main land both…
Archivist’s Choice: Agent of Millers
This document, newly donated to the Archive from the Owen Ward Collection, gives a glimpse of the role mills would have played in the event of an invasion of Britain by Napoleon. The document is a ‘Form of an appointment of an agent of millers’. In accordance with the Defence of the Realm Act of…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: Boyd’s and Thurston’s Mills
Part 8 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Boyd’s Mill, still standing. Photo Kksgram, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Thursday 9.5.29 On Thursday the 9th I was at the Historical Society’s office at 10 a.m. sharp. They were very kind; gave me a paper on the Rhode Island…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: To Newport
Part 7 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Boston City Club Wednesday 8.5.29 On Wednesday I “checked my grip” at the South Station and bought my ticket for Newport in advance having decided to visit that town in Rhode Island first. At the Boston City…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: Halifax
Part 4 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Georges Island, Halifax Harbour Monday 6.5.29. In Boston Harbour. On Thursday and Friday we entered and passed through the Grand Bank of Newfoundland fishing ground. Unfortunately, there was a thick fog and we saw but one fishing…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: Crossing the Atlantic
Part 3 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Canadian Pacific liner Monday 29.4.29. 10.p.m. (ships time) Our clocks have been put back an hour hence the parenthesis above. Was very sick this morning while shaving so took bromide and retired to bed until midday. Couldn’t…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes: to Belfast and Greenock
Part 2 of a weekly series of blogs about Rex Wailes’ 1929 trip to the USA and Canada. Belfast Lough. Photo by Yuri Loginov from Pexels Sunday evening 28.4.29. Had a restful night. The boat has a compound vibration that periodically damps down. We anchored in the middle of Belfast Lough at 4 a.m. Nothing happened until about 12.30…
Across the pond with Rex Wailes
In 1929 Rex Wailes, aged 28, went on a business trip to the USA and Canada – taking every opportunity to research mills on the way. This weekly series of blogs will showcase his diary of the trip, which he began the day he set of to cross the Atlantic. S.S. Aquitania. Image from the Library…