On the top floor of the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Massachusetts, is a once-secret room soaked in the legacy of the sea and the ships’ captains who sailed into history. It is the “Ship’s Cabin,” a replica from the bark Taria Topan (one of the last Salem vessels to trade in the East Indies) and the little-known home of the city’s oldest organization, the Salem Marine Society.

The Salem Marine Society formed in 1766 in an age when a fair proportion of local commanders disappeared at sea. The group’s charitable mission was to afford relief to the families of deceased members and to expand an area of knowledge that bore directly on their survival, ocean navigation.

The tour is provided by John Wigglesworth, Schooner Captain and family member of the Salem Marine Society.