Monday. Hot as usual. There's a lot of history here, so we go check some of it out. Kingston was once the capital of Canada, and a major ship building center on the Great Lakes especially during the War of 1812. The British, here in Kingston, and the Americans, over in Sackets Harbor, both fervently built some serious ships of war to try to dominate the Great Lakes.
We take an air-conditioned bus to the Kingston Marine Museum. It's a small space with mostly a few very well made ship models, a knowledgeable docent, and a short historical video that focused on the War of 1812. Here we learned that the British armed their ships with short heavy cannon which would inflict great damage but had limited range, while the US chose a longer cannon that gave them much greater range but less impact per shot. So any time they met, the British would try to sail in close enough to use their guns, while the US would try to stay out of range of the Brits while using their long range guns. They mostly chased each other around. The US ship 'Oswego' once chased the British 'Prince George' all the way to Kingston, where guns on shore could help. And the fleet from Kingston took the fort at Oswego, which we learned about a week ago.
Not far from the Marine Museum is the Kingston Penitentiary, which has been converted into a museum. The pen itself is closed today, but the warden's house is open. Each room there presents an aspect of life behind bars. A room showcases creative works made while behind bars, while another has weapons and knives and zip guns and cross bows and such that had been made with whatever tools and materials they could find.
After lunch at an indian restaurant, we check in at Johnathan's home, our couchsurfing host for two nights. It's good to get off the boat for a while. And couchsurfing is a great way to go. Check it out!
Then we visit the Murney tower, a defensive installation which probably participated in the aforementioned battle between the Prince George and the Oswego.
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