Thoreau's Musketaquid on Exhibit in Berkshire Hall On Wednesday, students entering Berkshire Hall were surprised to find a 15-foot wooden dory, sails aloft, aground in the atrium of Berkshire Hall. The “Musketaquid” is a replica of the sailing dory that Henry David Thoreau, then age 22, and his older brother, John, age 24, built and used to travel the waterways of northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire in late August, 1839. Henry chronicled their journey in his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, published in 1849. The exhibit coincides with next week’s Pro Vita Winter Session, a week-long, intensive program that offers over eighty-five different courses designed to stimulate curiosity and a lifelong love of learning. “We’re excited and grateful to exhibit the replica of Thoreau’s dory during our upcoming Pro Vita week,” said Pieter Mulder, Dean of Academics. “Thoreau’s boat is a fitting bookend to our own student-constructed replica of Thoreau’s cabin, tucked up in the woods behind Berkshire Hall, and it’s a good symbol for Berkshire’s boat building program  through the Ritt Kellogg Mountain Program (RKMP).” The dory’s presence in Berkshire Hall initially confused some kids. “I had some questions, for sure,” said Jacob Weiner ‘10. “I had never seen a boat quite like it, and what was it doing here? But once I learned more, I realized what a great opportunity this is for the School. I feel really lucky that we are able to have this exhibit here.” When the Thoreau brothers, both school teachers at the time, conceived of the plan for a sailing and camping vacation, neither had any previous sailing experience but were undaunted by the challenge. They built the boat themselves from pine and various hardwoods “in form like a fisherman’s dory.” For navigation, they relied on the newly-published New England Gazetteer to learn about the area’s geography and history. They departed from Concord, Massachusetts and sailed about 55 miles to Hooksett, New Hampshire, where they walked and took a stagecoach to the White Mountains before returning “by sail and oar” to Concord two weeks later. They did not travel lightly; in his journal, Henry recounted “there was a store of melons from our patch, and chests and spare spars, and sails and tent, and guns and ammunition enough to stock a galleon.” They also had two buffalo skins, two blankets, a small round table, two wheels for moving the boat on land, two masts, four oars, a lantern, a hatchet, a kettle and potatoes – all on a boat fifteen feet long by three and a half feet wide. Not surprisingly, he also noted that the boat “sank low in the water.” The replica, on loan from the Concord Museum, was built in 2007 by boat builders Taylor and Snediker of Pawtucket, Connecticut and will be on exhibit through March 8.   Date: 2/26/2010

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