Mystic -- Mystic Seaport Museum has announced that it will open a new exhibit titled  "Sailor Made: Folk Art of the Sea" on Sept. 18 in the C.D. Mallory Building.

The exhibit explores the art that emerged out of the difficult working conditions aboard a 19th-century ship, "reflecting sailors' connections to shipboard life, their thoughts about culture on shore, and the souvenirs they created to remember and share the experiences of their travels."

The exhibit is the second of four new exhibitions funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. It uses more than 200 objects from the museum's vast collection, many of which have long been hidden from public view. Access to the exhibit is included in the general admission to the museum.

During their non working hours, sailors carved scrimshaw, drew in journals, sewed intricate embroidery and creating intricate knot-work, as well as engaging in other forms of art.

"When stuck in the difficult, dangerous, and sometimes monotonous environment of the ship, sailors used art to express themselves. The designs they inscribed on scrimshaw, the types of household items they made, and the ways they used different materials were all intentions, and tell us something about the sailors themselves, their experiences, and the world they lived in," said exhibition curator Mirelle Luecke in the museum's announcement of the new exhibit.

Among the artifacts are numerous pieces of scrimshaw, a coat rack constructed of narwhal tusks, a child's hammock decorated with scenes from the circumnavigation voyage of the USS Columbia, examples of sample drawings from which sailors could choose their tattoo as well as knives, clothing, boxes, bowls and other items. There us even art work from more modern vessels such as a cribbage board in the shape of the nuclear submarine USS Hartford, to show the tradition continues today aboard merchant and naval vessels.