Charles W. Morgan for her 38th Voyage fro m New Bed fo rd on 6 Septem ber 184 1. In his journal, second mate Jam es Osborn stated she was on "a voyage to the Pacific Ocean" and added, "M ay kind Neptune protect us with pleasant gales and may we be successful in catching sperm whales." 4 She returned three years, three m on ths, and twe nty-seven days later with a cargo of 1,600 barrels of sperm oil (a barrel is equivalent to 3 1 1/z gal lo ns) 600 barrels of whale oil, and 10,000 po unds of bone. In her eighty-year career, twen ty years of which she wo rked out of San Francisco, the Mo rgan wo uld m ake thirty-seve n of th e 14,864 voyages referenced above . 1h ese numbers provide insight into the rem arkable scale of the industry. Laun ched at the beginning of the decade th at wo uld be th e high-water mark of th e whaling industry in te rms of the number of ships, crew, and cargo returned to port, the Morgan's career encompassed both the decline of the industry and a period of eno rmous national growth , co nfli ct, and change. H er whaling voyages would rake her aro und the world, reAect all that was happenin g to the industry and the country and, when her las t voyage ended in May of 192 1, effectively take her to the very end of Ameri ca n whaling under sail.
Certainly no o ne who built her, attended her launching, o r sailed on her first voyage could have imagined that the Morgan alone wo uld survive to tel l no t just her story, bur the story of this industry, its times, and the ships and people who were a part of it. On 28 M ay 192 1, Captain John T. Go nsalves sailed the Morgan back to New Bedfo rd, having completed her rhir tyseventh and final whaling voyage. After a brief reprieve in whi ch she was used in the films D own to The Seas In Ships and Java H ead, the vessel was laid up. Even at the time, some people understood that she represented the end of an era. A group of New Bedford citizens, led by artist Harry Neyland, sought to raise funds to preserve the ship. In the fall of 1924, inspired by the 26 August wreck of the Wanderer, the only other whaleship left besides the Morgan, Colonel Edward H owland Robi nson G reen, whose grandfa ther Edward Robinson had been the ship's second owner, stepped fo rward. Colonel Green offered to underwrite the ship's stewardship, bring her to his estate just outside of New Bedford, and restore her. His offer was accepted . The ship was opened to the public o n 2 1 July 1926 under an organizati on called W haling Enshrined and enjoyed im-
mediate po pularity: 189 ,000 people visited the shi p between 1 June 1927 and 1 June 1928 . 1 hingswentalongwell until Colonel G reen died in 193 5, leaving no resources to maintain the ship. Three yea rs later, the devastating G reat Hurricane of 1938 roared up the coast with the ship directly in its path. Remarkably, the old whaleship survived the event, bur not without further aggravating her deteriorating conditi o n. In 194 1, after a valiant bur unsuccessful effort by the Whaling Enshrined o rganization to raise enough money to keep her in New Bedfo rd, they accepted an offer from the then M arine Historical Associatio n (now M ys tic Seaport) to rake respo nsibility for preserving the vessel. The Charles W Morgan was rowed to Mys tic and passed th ro ugh the Mystic River Highway Bridge o n 8 November 194 1, just one mo nth befo re the Japanese attack on Pearl H arbor. Placed in a sand berrh at th e museum , the Morgan became the centerpiece of the growing institution and received ongoing mainrenance fromherwarerline up. In 1973, the decisio n was made to reAoat and haul out th e ship, a fear made possible by rhe shiplifr at the newly constructed H enry B. duPonr Preserva tio n Shipyard o n the museum's wa terfront. The hull was rem oved from
In her eighty-year career, the C harles W Mo rgan's crew hunted whales across the world's oceans, making p orts ofcall in both bustling ports and remote islands .
•
• •
•
• •
•
• •
SEA HISTORY 134, SPRING 2011
• •
., • ,l
• •• •
(,
• •• • • • •
''('· ..... ·-,,-
•
• • • •• • ••
•
..
• 17