Georgia - April/May 2007
Back in Georgia again - a bit later than when we were here last year. After spending a night off of Cumberland Island, we headed for Brunswick and the Brunswick Landing Marina. Jeremy had ordered a new high capacity battery charger/inverter as well as a new radio with a hailer and fog signals and we were looking for somewhere to go into for a while so we could get them installed. We really wanted the fog signals after being caught in the fog on the rivers a couple of times. A couple of our friends on other boats have that feature on their radio and it sure seems to beat watching a clock and manually giving the fog signal every two minutes! We figured it would take us one or two weeks to do the installations. Our friends on Namaste, who we met last year, recommended Brunswick Landing as a great spot to stop for awhile and get our jobs done. When we called the marina to book a slip, they told us that there was no 'weekly' rate - only a daily and a monthly rate. It turns out that if you are here more than 6 days, the monthly rate is cheaper - so we ended up paying for a month, with the thought that we would leave sooner. We ended up spending 3 weeks in this lovely marina. We were warned when we came in that is was a 'velcro' marina and that it might be difficult to tear ourselves away - and they were right!
We had never been to Brunswick before, and found it to be a wonderful small southern town rich in history. It is located on the coast about 50 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida
During World War II, the J. A. Jones construction company operated a ship yard in Brunswick's waterfront. Between 1942 and 1944, the company's workforce of over 16,000 men and women built 99 steel ships for the U.S. Merchant Marines. The ships served as both cargo and troop carriers, and their reputation for keeping vital supply lines open during the war earned them the name of "Liberty Ships." The yard produced an average of 4 ships a month, each one 447 feet long and weighing 3500 tons. In December 1944, with the "Battle of the Bulge" raging in Europe, the navy requisitioned six ships. The yard ramped up production and completed an amazing seven ships that month.
The picture to the left is of a model Liberty Ship located near the Brunswick city docks.
It is a monument to
those who worked in the shipyard to build them. 
Sydney Lanier was born in 1842 in Macon, Georgia. During a visit to Brunswick in 1874, he was so taken with the vast coastal marshland in this part of Georgia that he was driven to compose a poem extolling its vast and wild beauty. It was said that he loved to sit under an old oak tree looking out over the marshes while he worked on his poetry. The poem, entitled "The Marshes of Glynn" after the name of the marshes in this area, had its first public reading in 1875 and was later published in Baltimore in 1878.
Following is an excerpt from Sydney Lanier's poem 'Marshes of Glynn':
Look
how the grace of the sea doth go
About and about through the intricate channels that flow
·
Here and there,
·
Everywhere,
Till
his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low-lying lanes,
And the marsh is meshed with a million veins,
That's all very nice, but Jeremy and I think that maybe ole Sydney may have been smoking something - good. Now I'm all for beautiful quite places in the world. I love nothing more than to anchor out in some pretty quite cove somewhere and listen to the sounds of a soft breeze blowing gently by, the water lapping next to the sides of the hull, and the sound of seabirds calling in the distance. It's the sound of a thousand deer flies swarming in that sends me completely over the edge. When you travel up the coast of Georgia it seems that you are in marshland forever. I practically fall out of the boat when we finally hit dry land and kiss the ground. Sorry Syd, the marshes are just not our idea of paradise...
The town of Brunswick was established in 1771, when the Royal Province of Georgia bought the land from Mark Carr. Carr was a captain in General James Edward Oglethorpe's Marine Boat Company (more about Oglethorpe later) and was this area's first settler, establishing a plantation here in 1738. The governors of the Royal Province of Georgia laid out the town of Brunswick using the the grid system following Oglethorpe's plan for Savannah The town is named after King George II's ancestral home, the Hanoverian duchy of Braunsweig-Lunenburg, Germany.
As in most southern towns and cities, there is a monument to the soldiers
that fought for the Confederate States of America (CSA), and Brunswick is no
exception. The base of the monument bears the inscription "In honor of the Confederate Soldiers who died to repel
unconstitutional invasion to protect the rights reserved to the people to
perpetuate forever the sovereignty of the states."
The town has many beautiful public buildings including the City Hall (pictured below to the left) and the Police Department (pictured below to the right)
Perhaps the most striking building in town is the old Court House with the beautiful clock crowning the top.
Our friends Gordon and Bobbie on Namaste introduced us to several other couples in Brunswick Landing Marina while we were there. A few folks had cars, so we all piled in one day and drove down to the Crawfish Festival in Woodbine, Georgia - a tiny town about 20 miles south of Brunswick. We saw this funny sign outside of an antique shop, and I got my friends (Nancy, Bobbie and Debbie) to pose around it. Great what you can get your friends to do!!
Back at the marina, we had a visit from a big manatee one day. Fortunately they don't move too fast, so I was able to grab my camera and get some shots before he slowly swam away.
Our good friend Mary Kay Trail flew down to visit us for a few days - what a treat! She had a rental car while she was here, so we took advantage and did some exploring in the nearby islands and towns. The first day, we headed over to see the islands of St. Simons and Jekyll.
Jekyll Island became a winter playground for the rich and famous in 1886 with the development of the Jekyll Island Club. The club membership included J. P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William Rockefeller, and William Vanderbilt. Many of the club members built 'cottages' on the island to stay in when they were visiting. I must say that these are perhaps the largest 'cottages' I've ever seen. The one on the left below is the DuBignon cottage and the one on the right is the (drum roll please....) Crane cottage.
What do you think?? I could be pretty comfortable here - nice little place in the country.
Of course, you wouldn't want to clutter up such a tiny little place with a kitchen, so none of these cottages have one. Instead, all of the cooking and dining took place at the Club House. We went there for breakfast one morning. Most excellent, indeed! Surprisingly, they now allow the 'great unwashed' in for meals, and even more surprisingly it wasn't that expensive!
The island had many beautiful old oak trees - all laden with Spanish Moss.
There is a legend of the Spanish Moss in this part of the world. The story goes that Gorez Goz, a bearded Spanish villain, came ashore one day in this part of the world and spied a beautiful Indian maiden. He decided that he had to have her, so he bought her for a yard of braid and a little bar of soap. The Indian maiden was so afraid of this bearded beast that she fled over the hill and glad with him in pursuit. Tiring, she climbed to the top of a tree - but the Spaniard soon found her and he climbed up behind her. She dove from top of the the tree to the stream below. The villain's beard and whiskers became entangled in the branches holding him back while she got away. Gorez Goz's life was lost, the maiden was saved, and Goz's beard lives today on as dangling Spanish Moss in the trees of this area.
There is a pretty little chapel on Jekyll Island near the Club House. It has interesting gothic looking gargoyles under the eves guarding the church's spire.
The next day, we talked Mary Kay into driving south - down past Jacksonville to Green Cove Springs so we could pick up our mail. St. Augustine is only about 20 miles from Green Cove Springs, so we headed over there for the afternoon. We spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering around this wonderful old town. Following are some pictures I took while we were out at the fort. Jeremy is giving Mary Kay some horns in the picture to the right (he does love to do that!)
The fort has several old cannons from the times it was held by the Spanish and the English.
The last day of her visit, we headed north up to Savannah for a day. The city of Savannah, as well as the colony of Georgia, was founded by James Edward Oglethorpe in 1733.
Oglethorpe
was born in England in 1696. Enrolled at Oxford, he began his military
career at the age of 16 when he received a commission as an ensign. After serving
as an aid-de-camp for the English ambassador to Sicily for four years, he
returned to England and was appointed Lt. Captain of the Queen's Guard on the
recommendation of Lords Argyle and Marlborough. These two men also brought him
to the attention of Prince Eugene of Savoy. It was during Oglethorpe's time under
Prince Eugene, where he advanced from an obscure secretary to an aid-de-camp,
that brought him into the public spotlight. His return to England was not
glamorous, however. He ended up killing a man in a brawl and served five months
in prison.
Upon leaving the prison he became a member of Parliament, where his father and two brothers had served. During his time in Parliament, Oglethorpe was noted as a staunch defender of the rights of colonists and strongly against any kind of slavery. As chairman of a parliamentary committee investigating penal conditions, he became interested in the plight of the debtor classes. His interest was no doubt heightened when a good friend of his died in Fleet Debtor's Prison after contracting smallpox. During his work on the committee, Oglethorpe and several of his peers developed a plan for a new colony in the New World that could provide a fresh start for debtors . The colonists in South Carolina at this time were concerned with the advances made by the Spanish in Florida and therefore were in favor of a plan that would include development of a colony between the town of Charles Town (now the city of Charleston) and Florida.
Oglethorpe, together with 20 of his peers, petitioned the crown for a land grant in North America specifically for the purpose of forming a new colony. The grant included all land between the Altamaha and Savannah Rivers from the headwaters of these rivers to the "south seas." The new colony was to be called 'Georgia' in honor of King George II. The king granted the petition in June of 1732. Oglethorpe arrived at Charles Town in January of the following year, at the head of a company of 150 persons, comprising about thirty-five families. Interestingly, none of the people in the original group of settlers were debtors. The Savannah river was explored, and a site for the new settlement, named 'Savannah' after the river that flowed by it, was selected on what was known then as Yamacraw bluff.
Oglethorpe developed the design for Savannah based on a grid system which included many town squares. The city has preserved these lovely squares over the years and they form lovely parks throughout the town, each with monuments dedicated to the city's rich history.
The picture the left below is of a statue of Oglethorpe erected in Chippewa Square. The monument shown to the right marks the spot of Tomochichi's grave located in Wright Square. Tomochichi was the chief of the Yamacraw Indians, a tribe of the Creek Indian Nation, at the time Oglethorpe arrived in the New World. He is considered to be a co-founder, together with Oglethorpe, of Georgia. He negotiated the treaty with Oglethorpe, formally ratified on May 21, 1733, which allowed for the settlement of Georgia. Tomochichi became a great friend of the English and, in 1784 at the age of 84, he and his wife traveled to England to be received at court by the King. He died on October 5, 1739 and, at his request, was brought to Savannah to rest among his English friends. He was buried on this spot with full military honors
Jasper square honors Sergeant William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero.
Jasper first distinguished himself in the defense of Fort Moultrie on June 28,
1776. When a shell from a British warship shot away the flagstaff, he
recovered the flag, raised it on a temporary staff, and held it under fire until
a new staff was installed. Governor Rutledge presented his own sword to Jasper
in recognition of his bravery. Jasper was mortally wounded near this spot on
October 9, 1997 during the ill-fated Siege of Savannah in which the Americans
and French failed to recapture Savannah from the British. 
One of the most beautiful parks in Savannah is Forsyth Park with the Forsyth Fountain. The fountain was built in 1858 and was restored in 1988. Mary Kay snapped this picture of the two of us in front of the fountain.
The Nina came to visit Brunswick on the day before we left. We had seen this beautiful ship in Columbus, Mississippi when we were there this past fall. After they left Columbus, they had traveled down to Brownsville, Texas and then back along the Gulf coast around Florida and up the east coast to Brunswick. They've covered a lot more distance than we have in the time since we've seen them, but then they often travel through the night to get to scheduled destinations and that is something that we don't do unless we absolutely have to.
Even the mayor of Brunswick came out to welcome the Nina to town. (Hint: The mayor's the one in the suit.)
A few of the nice marinas we've visited have had the good fortune to have a 'marina cat.' Someone to keep tabs on things and make sure that everything runs as it should. Brunswick Landing has Shadow - a very sweet little boy. He jumped ship here several months ago and the dockmaster Sherry took him in and tries her best to take care of him. Shadow does escape once and a while from the office. He usually finds his own way back, but occasionally a boater in the marina ends up rounding him up and bringing him back (ask us how we know!).
The picture to the right is my latest quilting effort. It's a 30" square version of a mariner's compass. Came out pretty good if I don't say so myself.
One of the colonists who came to Georgia with Oglethorpe in 1733 was a young physician, surveyor and carpenter named Noble Jones. Jones served as constable, Indian agent, surveyor (laying out New Ebenezer and Augusta) and member of the Royal Council. In 1736, Jones leased 500 acres from the colony's trustees on the Isle of Hope, located 20 miles south of Savannah. He doubled the size of the estate when he acquired an additional 500 acres from his neighbor John Farrowfield. Jones named the estate "Wormslow" (renamed "Wormsloe" in the mid-1800s by his great-grandson).
The estate is unique in that it is still the family home to the decedents of Nobel Jones. In 1972, The family donated 822 acres to the Nature Conservancy which transferred the property to the state of Georgia which now operates it as a State Historic Site. The family still owns 65 1/2 acres and lives in a house that was built there in 1828.
The first picture is of the entryway arch that was constructed in 1913. The arch leads to a beautiful tree-lined road that takes you down to the interpretive center as well as the family estate.
A path leads from the Interpretive Center to the ruins of a tabby house that was constructed by Nobel Jones in 1745. We really liked the "Keep Out" sign near the ruins.
An interesting twisted weather-beaten Jasper pine tree near the Nobel Jones house.
We saw the Nina once again as it passed us by while we were at the Isle of Hope marina. The picture to the right is of another beautiful sunset off Isle of Hope
Updated May 19, 2007