Witches and Maritime History

Wednesday morning - unfortunately, we had grey skies - we spent in Salem, one of the most important seaports in American history and even older than Boston, founded in 1836. After a great breakfast at Gulu Gulu Café with excellent lox bagels, we met Kate, the local tourism rep, who showed us around and gave us a great overview in a short amount of time.

Main attractions in town are the House of Seven Gables (pic), famous because of Nathanial Hawthorne's (statue on pictue) novel -, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Witch Museum (pic on right side). Salem earned ambiguous reputation because of the witch trials of 1692, featured in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (Hexenjagd). This series of prosecutions of 20 people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts in 1692/93 was proof of mass hysteria, with politics and money involved. The Salem Witch Museum deals with witch-hunt and proves that "Fear + Trigger = Scapegoat", as much today as in 1692. Another witch-related attraction we visited was The Jonathan Corwin House, known as The Witch House, and originally the home of a judge by this name.

Salem Maritime National Historic Site preserves and interprets the waterfront of Salem, the settlement and its evolution into a maritime hub. It consists of several attractions to visit, twelve structures in total, among them Derby Wharf, Custom House, Narbonne House and a Visitor Center in the old Armory, where interesting films are being shown. It also operates a replica tallship, called "Friendship of Salem".


Salem is a mix of historical sites and architecture, witch souvenirs and a pretty vibrant downtown. After the American Revolution it was a hub of trade with the Pacific and Africa, especially trade for pepper and Chinese luxury goods. The captains and merchants built their big mansions along the wharfs. The rich maritime and trade history is very instructively presented in the Peabody Essex Museum in downtown (pics above).

Turner Seafood at Lyceum Hall operates under the motto "anything fresher still swims" and is famous for fish and seafood. They have a "market section" and a restaurant, where we ate delicious Atlantic salmon. After lunch we left Salem, stopping at Newburyport (picture below) for a quick stroll, on to Portland, Maine.