A Cook in on tfie (iving act of restoration ...
Set up on the beach of Colonel Green '.r estate outside the old whaling port ofNew Bedford, the Charles W. Mo rgan looked ready for the ages as she stood by to receive visitors aboard in 1!)21. Port-painted and ship-rigged as she was at the outset ofher career, she has newly been taken over from Whaling Enshrined, a group formed from the artists' colony in New Bedford, who could no more care for the ship than Kit Morley '.r Three Hours for lunch Club, composed of waggish litterateurs in New York, could handle the sailing ship T usitala, which they took on in the same era. f ames Farrell stepped in to save the T usitala, but when he had to let her go, she was doomed. When Colonel Green died in the midl !J30s, he made no provision for the Charles W. Morgan and it seemed she was doomed as well. The saving stroke for the Morgan was delivered by Carl Cutler, a founder ofMystic Seaport and its chieffactotum, who undertook to take the deteriorating ship offNew Bedford'.r hands, getting her towed into Mystic in late 1341, shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the US into World War II. Any later, and the trip could not have been made. (Photos courtesy Mystic Seaport, Inc.)
Rebuilt in this fashion, the old ship is authentically seaworthy. Her people know this, and the public learns about it. That is the glory ofthe living art ofship restoration at Mystic.
done "as tfie oriÂŁJinaC 6ui[c(ers d1:f in 1841." -J. REVELL CARR Fish rot from the head down, and ships rot from the upperworks down. Here new frames of native white oak replace topside frames, building up from the salt-impregnated lower frames of 1841, which endure today.
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How is the replanked hull caulked? Carefully-the caulking serves to stress the planks, binding them together into a cohesive whole. just the right pressure is needed, which a skilled caulker judges by the ring ofhis caulking maffet.
Rough work with heavy tools precedes the pretty fine finish that even hard-worked utilitarian vessels like the Morgan showed on deck.
SEA HISTORY 96, SPRING 2001