New Sails for an Old Ship-Building Sails for the Charles W. Morgan by Deirdre O'Regan hen the Charles W Morgan was h auled out in 200 8 fo r a five-year reconstruction of her hull, the shipwrights at Mystic Seaport had a critical primary resource at their dis posal fo r selecting materials, determining methods of construction, des ign, and repair: they had the ship. W hat they did not have was the o riginal sail plan, or her sails fro m her whaling days. W hile the Charles W Morgan has nearly always had a suit of sails to set at the dock fo r demonstration purposes, any sails she showed up with when she arrived at the museum in 1941 are long gone. The Morgan is setting sail this summer fo r the first tim e since her 37rh voyage, which ended in 1921; the sails her crew will set w ill be as close to the original design, materials and craftsm anship as can be m ade in the twenty-first centu ry. In drawing up the pla ns fo r the resto ration of the ship, the tas k of researching and building her sails went to the sailmaker most able to design and build sa ils as true to the originals as possible. W ho better to ask than one of the wo rld 's fo rem ost autho ri ties on traditional sa ilmaking, Nathaniel S. Wilson of East Boothbay, Maine? Nat has built sa ils fo r USS Constitution a nd ma ny of the hi storic sailing ships, replica vessels, and classic yachts yo u know about in the United States, and beyond. W hile he has extensive knowledge of every detail of sailmaking from the Age of Sail onwards, he still put considerable research into the job to ensure that the nineteen sails he wo uld supply for the M organ are the best and most authentic they could possibly be. These are not just for dem onstrations at the dock; Morgan's new suit of sa ils must perform properly at sea. W hile the ship will travel with a support vessel and m g on her 38'hvoyage, she has no engines and will rely on her sails for propulsion- just as she did fo r her eightyyea r whaling career across every ocean in the world .
The Charles W Morgan wasn't exactly ready to go sailing when she slid down t he ways at the Jethro and Zachariah Hi llman Shipyard in New Bed fo rd, Massachusetts, on 21 July 1841. O nce the hull was completed, the ship needed to be fin ed out w ith berthing areas, a galley and other interior spaces, plus deck fittin gs, trywo rks for rendering blubber into oil, and finish wo rk. Aloft, her m as ts needed ya rds, booms and gaffs, plus standing and ru nning rigging and, of course, sail s. The shipyard took care of the hull, bu t the sails wo uld have been contracted out to a local sailmaker, and in 184 1 in New Bedford, there were plenty to choose fro m .
This undated photo by Baldwin Coolidge (1845-1928) captures a whaling ship at Merrill's Wharf in New Bedford. A stone's throw from her berth is a sail loft in the stone building, to the right ofthe frame. In 1840, eighty- two ships arrived in po rt from wh aling voyages from distant oceans. New Bedford had recently jumped ahead of N antucket as the whaling capital of the world , and th e fi shery had ye t to peak. At its climax in 1857, when ninety-fi ve vessels set sail from New Bedfo rd on multi-yea r whaling voyages, half of all wo rld-wide whaling was tied to this one city. Population had more than do ubled from what it had been at the turn of t he centur y and was still growing. Business was booming. W hali ng ships that called New Bedfo rd ho me numbered in the hundreds, and, while most were out at sea at any o ne time, the streets and docks at home were scenes of constant ac tivity. Down along the waterfront, ships in port were unloading cargo and preparing fo r the next voyage, while m aritime tradesm en we re busy receiving ca rgo and crewmen, and getting the ships ready to go out again . At the time of Charles W Morgan's launch, there was a sa il loft wi thin two blocks of nearly every wharf in New Bed fo rd. In 1836, twenty-seven sailm akers wo rked in New Bed ford at six different sail lofts, and by 1859 their numbers had nea rly tripled . A com mon practice in nineteenth-century shipping was fo r sailmakers to accept sh ares in a vessel in lieu of cash, w hich not only could bring in a good return on their inves tment, but wo uld also lock in that vessel's sailma ki ng work. New Bed ford (left) Nat Wilson in the loft prepping materials for the M o rgan's sails.
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SEA HI STORY 147, SUMME R 2014