The Voyage of the Mimi
Encyclopedia
The Voyage of the Mimi was a thirteen-episode American education
al television program
depicting the crew of the Mimi exploring the ocean and taking a census of humpback whales. The series aired on PBS
and was created by the Bank Street College of Education
in 1984 to teach middle-schoolers about science
and mathematics
in an interesting and interactive way, where every lesson related to real world applications. The series was also released as a Laserdisc
collection.
It was shot in Marblehead, Massachusetts
and starred future superstar Ben Affleck
.
After a segement of fictional adventure in the first part of each episode, a corresponding "expedition" documentary taught viewers something scientific relating to plot events in the previous episode of the show. For example, there was an episode where the plot was about obtaining drinkable water, and over the course of the episode, the viewer would also be given lessons about condensation
, heat
, and the three states of matter. Each lesson had accompanying student and teacher handouts or worksheets.
A second series was produced in 1988, The Second Voyage of the Mimi
, in which the two Granvilles, along with other archaeologists, searched for a lost Mayan
city, and uncovered a conspiracy along the way.
played C.T. Granville, and Peter G. Marston played his grandfather Captain Granville. Marston was a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
during the production of the program and used to own the actual ship, the Mimi.
Cast Listing:
The first segment of each episode follows a serialized tale of scientists taking a census of humpback whales off the coast of Massachusetts. Captain Clement Tyler Granville, the owner of the sailboat Mimi is hired by scientist Anne Abrams and her colleague Ramon Rojas to make the census. Anne's Graduate Research Assistant is Sally Ruth Cochran. In addition, the two scientists each invite a high school student (Arthur Spencer and Rachel Fairbanks) to take part in the study. Finally, Captain Granville's identically-named grandson comes visiting for the summer in order to give his mother a break during her pregnancy.
Each second segment is a standalone exploration of one of the scientific principles touched on in the serialized tale. In these second segments, one of the actors who portrays a young person (Ben Affleck, Mark Graham, or Mary Tanner) comes out of character and interviews real, in many cases well-known, scientists about their work. These scientists include oceanographer Sylvia Earle
, geologist Kim Kastens, zoologist Katharine Payne
, Greg Watson of the New Alchemy Institute
, and physicist Ted Taylor.
In addition, Judy Pratt, a student at Gallaudet University
, and Peter Marston, a scientist at M.I.T., come out of character in interviews with Ben Affleck at their respective workplaces.
The Mimi is a French-built sailboat that is 72 feet (21 meters) in length, originally built in 1934 to function as a deep-hulled cargo barge. She was built in the Northwest of France in the region of Brittany, on the coast of the Mer d'Iroise (the Iroise Sea). Mimi is a type of vessel known as a "Gabare d'Iroise," where "Gabare" translates as "cargo barge," and "Iroise" refers to the region in which she was constructed.
Mimi was initially used as a cargo ship in the rough waters of the North Sea
, and was thus built to withstand serious maritime conditions. Because Mimi was a "gabare," she was also built with a shallow draft. This combination of strength and ability to operate in shallow waters allowed Mimi to be used both in the open sea and the extensive canal system in Europe at that time.
After serving many years in the Northern part of France, Mimi was sold to an owner in the Southern part of France where she was converted to a fishing trawler for tunafish.
Nazi commandeer and near death
The Mimi was used by German soldiers during the Second World War to transport munitions. When the Allied Forces pushed the retreating Axis forces back eastward through France in August 1944, Nazi protocol was to destroy any military property that might possibly be used against them by the invading forces (i.e. fortresses, ammunition, vehicles, etc.) For reasons unknown, Mimi was not destroyed by retreating Nazi forces, but rather left tied to a tree on a mudflat.
Television career
Mimi was purchased in the early 1980s by Peter Marston, an MIT professor at the time. The boat was kept moored in Gloucester, Massachusetts throughout the filming of the series and thereafter. In addition to its role in "The Voyage of the Mimi," which began in 1984, the boat was used from the late 1980s through the 1990s to enrich and inspire schoolchildren utilizing the Mimi curriculum. Each school year, the Mimi sailed from New England to the Gulf of Mexico and back, stopping at pre-arranged ports of call to meet with students in grades 4 through 7, and their teachers. At each port, "Mimifests" were held, which included various activities and presentations about marine life, seamanship, and navigation. These events were attended by approximately 30,000 students each year.
Marston retained ownership of the vessel until 1999, when the boat was sold to new owners Captain George G. Story of Gloucester, Massachusetts, his brother Captain Alan M. Story of Deltona, Florida, and Spiro "Steve" Cocotas, also from Gloucester. They operated the vessel as Three Mates Inc. for several years, bringing the boat to as many as 28 cities along the east coast.
Beginning of the end
After three years of ownership under Three Mates Inc., Mimi was repossessed for financial reasons and sold at public auction in Massachusetts. Michael Spurgeon developed a plan to resurrect the Mimi, and the vessel was subsequently purchased with venture capital provided by Spurgeon's employer, Capt. Greg Muzzy, a Boston-area entrepreneur
who owns and operates the "Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships,". Mimi was sailed from Gloucester to the Mystic River
in Boston, where she was kept docked at various Marinas in East Boston and Chelsea.
Muzzy's intention was to rehabilitate the ship, and possibly court a Discovery Channel special about Mimi's story. After spending approximately $100,000 on infrastructural investments on the ship, including a complete rebuild of the stern and diesel engine, the ship became too costly to continue work on.
In 2008, it was discovered that a homeless man had been living aboard the ship while docked at the Marina, and he was promptly removed from his quarters there. In a tragic act of revenge, the homeless man returned and removed one of several plugs in the belly of the ship, allowing her to rapidly fill with water. Mimi sank while at port, effectively ruining all electronics aboard the ship as well as seriously damaging the recently rebuilt engine.
She was floated back to the surface by a recovery team two weeks later, and sat disused after that.
Attempted revival and final disposal
In the summer of 2010, two recent college graduates of the University of Vermont
who had been fans of The Voyage of the Mimi stumbled upon the Mimi at port and soon afterwards mounted an effort to save the ship, which had fallen into a state of disrepair. Their efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful, given among other factors the high cost that would be required to save the ship and the Mimi's limited historical value, so the Mimi was scrapped in July of 2011.
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
depicting the crew of the Mimi exploring the ocean and taking a census of humpback whales. The series aired on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
and was created by the Bank Street College of Education
Bank Street College of Education
Bank Street College of Education is located in Manhattan, New York City.-History:Bank Street was founded in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell as the "Bureau of Educational Experiments"....
in 1984 to teach middle-schoolers about science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
in an interesting and interactive way, where every lesson related to real world applications. The series was also released as a Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
collection.
It was shot in Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...
and starred future superstar Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
.
After a segement of fictional adventure in the first part of each episode, a corresponding "expedition" documentary taught viewers something scientific relating to plot events in the previous episode of the show. For example, there was an episode where the plot was about obtaining drinkable water, and over the course of the episode, the viewer would also be given lessons about condensation
Condensation
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....
, heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...
, and the three states of matter. Each lesson had accompanying student and teacher handouts or worksheets.
A second series was produced in 1988, The Second Voyage of the Mimi
The Second Voyage of the Mimi
The Second Voyage of the Mimi is a twelve-episode American educational television program depicting a fictional crew of a sailboat named the Mimi exploring Mayan ruins in Southern Mexico. Along the way, they learn a lot about ancient civilization and also attempt to foil the plans of looters who...
, in which the two Granvilles, along with other archaeologists, searched for a lost Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
city, and uncovered a conspiracy along the way.
Cast
Ben AffleckBen Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
played C.T. Granville, and Peter G. Marston played his grandfather Captain Granville. Marston was a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
during the production of the program and used to own the actual ship, the Mimi.
Cast Listing:
- Ben AffleckBen AffleckBenjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
as Clement Tyler (C.T.) Granville - Peter G. Marston as Captain Clement Tyler Granville
- Edwin De Asis as Ramon Rojas
- Victoria Gadsden as Anne Abrams
- Mark GrahamMark GrahamMark Graham may refer to:*Mark Anthony Graham , Canadian Olympic athlete and casualty in the War in Afghanistan*Mark Graham , New Zealand rugby league footballer and coach...
as Arthur Spencer - Judy Pratt as Sally Ruth Cochran
- Mary TannerMary TannerDame Mary Elizabeth Tanner, DBE is President of the World Council of Churches. She has been a member of the WCC Faith and Order Commission since 1974, serving as its moderator from 1991 to 1998....
as Rachel Fairbanks
Episodes
Each episode consists of two fifteen-minute segments, the actual episode, then an "expedition" which reveals the fact behind the fiction.The first segment of each episode follows a serialized tale of scientists taking a census of humpback whales off the coast of Massachusetts. Captain Clement Tyler Granville, the owner of the sailboat Mimi is hired by scientist Anne Abrams and her colleague Ramon Rojas to make the census. Anne's Graduate Research Assistant is Sally Ruth Cochran. In addition, the two scientists each invite a high school student (Arthur Spencer and Rachel Fairbanks) to take part in the study. Finally, Captain Granville's identically-named grandson comes visiting for the summer in order to give his mother a break during her pregnancy.
Each second segment is a standalone exploration of one of the scientific principles touched on in the serialized tale. In these second segments, one of the actors who portrays a young person (Ben Affleck, Mark Graham, or Mary Tanner) comes out of character and interviews real, in many cases well-known, scientists about their work. These scientists include oceanographer Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Alice Earle is an American oceanographer. She was chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990–1992. She is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General".-Education and career:Earle received a...
, geologist Kim Kastens, zoologist Katharine Payne
Katharine Payne
Katharine Boynton Payne is a researcher in the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University. In 1999, she founded the lab's .-Career:...
, Greg Watson of the New Alchemy Institute
New Alchemy Institute
The New Alchemy Institute was a research center that did pioneering investigation into organic agriculture, aquaculture, and bioshelter design between 1969 and 1991. It was founded by John Todd, Nancy Jack Todd, and William McLarney...
, and physicist Ted Taylor.
In addition, Judy Pratt, a student at Gallaudet University
Gallaudet University
Gallaudet University is a federally-chartered university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, located in the District of Columbia, U.S...
, and Peter Marston, a scientist at M.I.T., come out of character in interviews with Ben Affleck at their respective workplaces.
| Episode Number | Episode Name | Expedition Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All Aboard | Planet Ocean |
| 2 | Setting Sail | Whale Watch |
| 3 | On the Shoals | Mapping the Blue Part |
| 4 | Counting Whales | Whale Bones |
| 5 | Going Fishing | Scraping the Bottom |
| 6 | Home Movies | Songs in the Sea |
| 7 | Fastening On | Hands Full of Words |
| 8 | Tracking the Whale | World's Worst Weather |
| 9 | Shipwrecked | Goose Bumps |
| 10 | Making Dew | Water, Water, Everywhere |
| 11 | The Feast | A New Alchemy |
| 12 | Rolling Home | Boat Shop |
| 13 | Separate Ways | A Sailor and a Scientist |
The real Mimi
BeginningsThe Mimi is a French-built sailboat that is 72 feet (21 meters) in length, originally built in 1934 to function as a deep-hulled cargo barge. She was built in the Northwest of France in the region of Brittany, on the coast of the Mer d'Iroise (the Iroise Sea). Mimi is a type of vessel known as a "Gabare d'Iroise," where "Gabare" translates as "cargo barge," and "Iroise" refers to the region in which she was constructed.
Mimi was initially used as a cargo ship in the rough waters of the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
, and was thus built to withstand serious maritime conditions. Because Mimi was a "gabare," she was also built with a shallow draft. This combination of strength and ability to operate in shallow waters allowed Mimi to be used both in the open sea and the extensive canal system in Europe at that time.
After serving many years in the Northern part of France, Mimi was sold to an owner in the Southern part of France where she was converted to a fishing trawler for tunafish.
Nazi commandeer and near death
The Mimi was used by German soldiers during the Second World War to transport munitions. When the Allied Forces pushed the retreating Axis forces back eastward through France in August 1944, Nazi protocol was to destroy any military property that might possibly be used against them by the invading forces (i.e. fortresses, ammunition, vehicles, etc.) For reasons unknown, Mimi was not destroyed by retreating Nazi forces, but rather left tied to a tree on a mudflat.
Television career
Mimi was purchased in the early 1980s by Peter Marston, an MIT professor at the time. The boat was kept moored in Gloucester, Massachusetts throughout the filming of the series and thereafter. In addition to its role in "The Voyage of the Mimi," which began in 1984, the boat was used from the late 1980s through the 1990s to enrich and inspire schoolchildren utilizing the Mimi curriculum. Each school year, the Mimi sailed from New England to the Gulf of Mexico and back, stopping at pre-arranged ports of call to meet with students in grades 4 through 7, and their teachers. At each port, "Mimifests" were held, which included various activities and presentations about marine life, seamanship, and navigation. These events were attended by approximately 30,000 students each year.
Marston retained ownership of the vessel until 1999, when the boat was sold to new owners Captain George G. Story of Gloucester, Massachusetts, his brother Captain Alan M. Story of Deltona, Florida, and Spiro "Steve" Cocotas, also from Gloucester. They operated the vessel as Three Mates Inc. for several years, bringing the boat to as many as 28 cities along the east coast.
Beginning of the end
After three years of ownership under Three Mates Inc., Mimi was repossessed for financial reasons and sold at public auction in Massachusetts. Michael Spurgeon developed a plan to resurrect the Mimi, and the vessel was subsequently purchased with venture capital provided by Spurgeon's employer, Capt. Greg Muzzy, a Boston-area entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
who owns and operates the "Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships,". Mimi was sailed from Gloucester to the Mystic River
Mystic River
The Mystic River is a river in Massachusetts, in the United States. Its name derives from the Wampanoag word "muhs-uhtuq", which translates to "big river." In an Algonquian language, "Missi-Tuk" means "a great river whose waters are driven by waves", alluding to the natural tidal nature of the...
in Boston, where she was kept docked at various Marinas in East Boston and Chelsea.
Muzzy's intention was to rehabilitate the ship, and possibly court a Discovery Channel special about Mimi's story. After spending approximately $100,000 on infrastructural investments on the ship, including a complete rebuild of the stern and diesel engine, the ship became too costly to continue work on.
In 2008, it was discovered that a homeless man had been living aboard the ship while docked at the Marina, and he was promptly removed from his quarters there. In a tragic act of revenge, the homeless man returned and removed one of several plugs in the belly of the ship, allowing her to rapidly fill with water. Mimi sank while at port, effectively ruining all electronics aboard the ship as well as seriously damaging the recently rebuilt engine.
She was floated back to the surface by a recovery team two weeks later, and sat disused after that.
Attempted revival and final disposal
In the summer of 2010, two recent college graduates of the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
who had been fans of The Voyage of the Mimi stumbled upon the Mimi at port and soon afterwards mounted an effort to save the ship, which had fallen into a state of disrepair. Their efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful, given among other factors the high cost that would be required to save the ship and the Mimi's limited historical value, so the Mimi was scrapped in July of 2011.