Bells and rings and samples, oh my!

Things have been busy here between installing new air conditioning, starting to reopen the construction-impacted Kenedy gallery, and, of course the ever-present Belle inventory.  Of course, I only work on that last one, but it's enough!

I know I said I'd come back with the sound the bells make, but I haven't found an easy way to record that.  Maybe I'll surprise you with it one week.  The bells are now all cataloged and bagged - there are just about 1500 of them in our cabinets, plus those that are on display in the museums around the state.

Next up would be the finger rings ("iconographic" or "Jesuit" rings), but we're putting that off for a bit in pursuit of another project... samples.

When Belle was excavated, there were lots of mystery materials and sediments.  Most of those were bagged up for later examination.  Some have been examined, but some others have not.  They're in about 10 big boxes, plus 8 buckets.  The goal now is to look at see what we have, and how much of it there is.  For example, the buckets are all full of pitch, which is tree resin that the sailors used to waterproof and seal wood on board Belle.  I sailed on sailing ships for a number of years, and that smell is something that still pervades the wooden ship world.  It's something that would have been an integral part of life aboard Belle, so it's kind of nice that I get to smell it now.

There's also lots of sand, mud, and pieces of "stuff" that was around the wreck, along with some film canisters of liquid from the ceramics we talked about a few weeks ago.  These bags are all getting old (16 years in some cases!), and some are starting to leak, which makes the lab smell foul.  Some of this stuff wasn't so nice 330 years ago, and the years might not have been kind.  What a mess!

I'll try to update with some pictures next week.

Anything you guys want to know about Belle?  Ask away in the comments section.