around the Chesapeake? Story and photos by Al Schreitmueller
I
was in Portland, ME, recently and was served some delicious oysters. I inquired about their origin guessing they were locally from Damariscotta or Camden. Proudly, the proprietor informed us they were Chincoteagues! Sometimes you have to leave
##Charles W. Morgan,
home to find out how special things are in your own neighborhood. Returning down the coast, we stopped in Mystic to check on restoration progress of the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whale ship in the world and the oldest (1841) Ameri-
can commercial vessel in existence. Whaling was first documented in 6000 BC with commercial whaling ramping up in Europe in the 1600s. By 1841, whale oil was valued as the chief fuel for lamps in homes and businesses and as the key lubricant for the early industrial revolu-
tion. During the latter 1800s, kerosene and natural gas became more economical and replaced whale oil as preferred fuels, and the whaling industry declined. For 80 years, the double-topsail bark Charles W. Morgan was the mothership—a platform for sight-
ing pods of whales, launching whaleboats, and then processing and transporting whale products to port. Quentin Snediker, Director of Mystic’s shipyard affirmed the Morgan is on target for a July 21 re-launch, 182 years to the day of her original trip down the ways.
Mystic .
##Rob Du tton fit s a whaleboat plank, Alexandria Seapor t.
The project is not merely restoration; the ship was entirely laser scanned and the construction methods and plans documented for historical purposes. Matthew Stackpole of Mystic described the rebuilding of the foremost part of the bow with large pieces of white and live oak totaling more than 1500 pounds. X-rays uncovered salt shelves between the frames under 52 May 2013 SpinSheet
interior planking to keep bilge-water brine from becoming diluted with freshwater in order to minimize rot. Stackpole offered that I must be proud to be from the Chesapeake area, as onethird of the whaleboats for the Morgan were being made there. As with our “Maine” oysters, I was embarrassed to say I had no idea. Two are being built in Phila-
delphia at the Independence Seaport boat shop and another at the Alexandria Seaport Foundation in Virginia. Others are being lofted around the country at noteworthy boatbuilding shops. Whaleboats were the thirty-foot hunting craft used for harpooning whales. Light, strong, and double-ended, they were operated by a ship’s officer and five spinsheet.com