Today in the CBO
Settlements Today
by Nat Wright-Kowalski
1 December 2302 - Nahant
The Island Shaped Like a Dolphin
When I sat in Boston Public Library to research the island of Nahant, one of the first mentions was that it was the "dolphin-shaped island." What is a dolphin, you ask? Well, it is what we now call ghoul whales, or gwhales, one of the ocean's few mammal species. That is the shape of Nahant, the dolphin-shaped island.
A shot of Nahant from a vertibird around 2288
I traveled to Nahant on the shortest path possible, straight east on the rail from Diamond City to the Harbor, on a ferry past the Boston Airport and Nordhagen Beach to Nahant. Nahant is across an isthmus, a long, narrow stretch of land connecting the island to the mainland, from Lynn.
Upon arriving at the wharf, I was struck by the differences between the photos I found on file in the library and how the wharf appeared upon the world's demise in 2077. While the wharf had grown in size, its current usage was limited due to the rusted-out ships still in port.
Nahant Wharf needs some work
The ferry docked, and I was greeted by the Nahant mayor, Bucky Neckstrap, who was going to show me around the island.
"It's small but cozy," Mayor Neckstrap said. "We can get around this place in no time at all if we stick to the roads."
The island has few buildings intact in all, though Nahant is farther away from the blast center of the Glowing Sea. You can see that there are cliffs along the northside where entire sections of the island collapsed into the ocean. Mayor Neckstrap points at one mansion built up and more pristine than any other building on the island.
Pre-War Nahant
"That's Croup Manor," he says. "Your friend Nate [Howard] killed off the family that was still in the basement there. They were all ghouls. After that, he made it a settlement location for his visits to the island."
The settlement has now expanded to the entirety of the island, with people now occupying each of the standing structures throughout the island. There is a sense that Nahant will continue to grow beyond the current occupation with smaller shacks continuously added onto and then used as multi-family homes. Howard likes the place and has already overseen the expansion of the baseball park.
Speaking of the park, it is on what was once a "golf course." Golf was a game for the wealthy of yesteryear where people used L-shaped sticks to hit balls long distances into a cup. It was once a place lush with nature, full of greens and ponds and birds everywhere. Now, it is a large open area where the ballpark, businesses, and residences have popped up.
The greens of the golf course, pre-War
The ballpark also has a specific name, Village Uncle Park. Howard said the name was the best fit because of a story written by one of the Boston greats of the past, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Howard has described the island as a significant one in history. He also mentioned another writer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who spent significant time on the island. It's not Walden Pond for its literary significance, but Nahant is a place where writers spent some time smithing words. I can almost feel the muses of literature pulling at me here.
We left Village Uncle Park to make our way east. On the southern side of the road, we pass the largest establishment for food and drink I have seen in the Commonwealth, the Nahant Bar and Restaurant. It also has a large wharf area where local fishermen dock, clean their catches, and sell them to the restaurant. Nahant Bar and Restaurant is the major hangout area of Nahant. Just past the restaurant, we see the Village Uncle Inn, where I will be staying for the night. It is a small but cozy place for sleeping, and it is a short walk to eating next door.
As we continue east, we pass the renovated Nahant All Faiths Chapel on the north side of the street. This chapel is one of the few buildings that is not buzzing with people, but, as Mayor Neckstrap states, it is for anyone who wants to worship anything.
We finally reach the end of the island where the most interesting place on Nahant lies, the Nahant Oceanological Society. Pre-war, this place began as a place to protect sealife. However, before the bombs even dropped, there was a discovery that local sealife was beginning to mutate. What we now know as mirelurks were actually a variety of other animals, including fish, crabs, shrimp, and lobsters.
The Nahant Oceanological Society was also responsible for discovering pre-War radiation in Lake Quannapowitt on the mainland. They were the whistleblowers of their time but were largely ignored. Even today, we see remnants of the irradiated waters not at all as a result of the fallout.
A final note about the Nahant Oceanological Society, which is up and running again: the pre-War Handys that were the tour guides of the facility are still in operation. Mayor Neckstrap and Dr. Gloria Aqua, who runs the facility, thought it best not to reprogram the robots from their pre-War spiels.
"We feel like we can go back 200 years in time to feel what it was like," Mayor Neckstrap said. "This place is historical, and we want to preserve that history."
Nahant Bar and Restaurant
The day had grown long, so I joined Mayor Neckstrap at the Nahant Bar and Restaurant. We had a nice helping of lurkcakes, silt beans, and Nuka-Cola Dark. After, I wished the mayor adieu and headed to my room at the Village Uncle Inn. It was a nice trip, and a place where I would love to return to watch baseball. If Village Uncle Park is to be expanded, then there is no doubt the CBO will be here at some point. Maybe one day in the future, I can snack on popmaize and drink more Nuka-Cola Darks while watching current #1 overall pick Stormin Normin MacDonald hit balls out the park.
Regardless, my trip to the dolphin-shaped island will not be my last. After all, those lurkcakes were just right.