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Read the latest Mystic Seaport news.
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History at Sea and at Home
Mystic, Conn. — Nearly 100 years after its last voyage, the whaleship Charles W. Morgan will visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in a symbolic journey to one of the world’s premier whale watching sites. During the Morgan’s historic 38th Voyage to New England ports, the ship will visit the sanctuary, located off of Massachusetts, July 11-13. While in the sanctuary, the Morgan crew will team with NOAA to conduct outreach activities highlighting the sanctuary’s role in whale conservation and ocean research.
This is the Morgan’s first sailing voyage since 1921. Over an 80-year whaling career, the ship sailed on 37 voyages to the remote corners of the globe, including waters of what are now national marine sanctuaries in California, Hawaii, and American Samoa. The vessel was part of the fleet that played a defining role in the maritime heritage of New England and helped shape the nation’s identity.
Following a stop in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the whaleship’s homeport for most of her whaling career, the Morgan will sail to Provincetown, Massachusetts, for daily sails to the sanctuary. A free dockside educational exhibit will be open during those days. The public can follow the Morgan’s visit to the sanctuary on OceansLIVE (http://www.OceansLIVE.org), which will broadcast from the vessel and other locations, offering interviews and commentary with historians, scientists, authors, and artists discussing the shift from whaling to watching in New England.
“The Morgan’s 38th Voyage to the whale grounds of New England represents a new voyage of hope,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “Instead of hunting whales, the last wooden whaleship afloat sails as an ambassador for ocean conservation.”
Stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod, offshore of Massachusetts, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a critical feeding and nursery ground for several whale and dolphin species, including the endangered humpback, North Atlantic right, sei, and fin whales.
In the 1700s, shore-based whaling was a common activity in Massachusetts Bay, including waters now part of the sanctuary, and along the East Coast. Small boats set out from the shores of Cape Cod in pursuit of right whales, hastening their decline. As whale populations diminished in the Atlantic Ocean, Massachusetts whalers rounded Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean to find more whales.
Today, whales in the sanctuary are no longer hunted but studied and enjoyed for their beauty. The sanctuary is a center for whale watching in New England. Ongoing research at the sanctuary is focused on better understanding whale behavior so as to reduce whale mortality caused by entanglement in commercial fishing gear and ship strikes. Human-induced sources of underwater noise and their potential impacts on marine animals are also topics of substantial concern among scientists.
“Thanks to pioneering work by sanctuary scientists and others to develop conservation strategies to reduce risks to whales, we’re redefining how we interact with these magnificent creatures and forging a new relationship based on respect and stewardship,” said Daniel J. Basta, director, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
Mystic, Conn. — Mystic Seaport announced the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan will delay its departure from New Bedford until Tuesday, July 8. The ship had been scheduled to sail Monday from New Bedford to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy at the south end of the Cape Cod Canal on the next leg of its 38th Voyage on July 7.
“The forecast for sustained winds and gusts and sea conditions for Buzzards Bay exceeds our level of comfort for operating the ship,” said Dana Hewson, vice president for watercraft preservation and operations at Mystic Seaport.
The Morgan is now scheduled to sail to the academy on Tuesday morning. The next leg of the voyage, from the academy to Provincetown, Mass. by way of the canal, will be pushed back one day, to Wednesday, July 9. A series of day sails on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will continue as scheduled from July 11-13.
For more information on the Morgan and its 38th Voyage, please visit the Mystic Seaport website.
NEW BEDFORD — With a welcome fit for a prodigal son, the City of New Bedford has thrown open its arms to honor and celebrate the homecoming of the Charles W. Morgan this week.
The Morgan, of course, has a deep connection to the city. She was built and launched just upriver at the Hillman Brothers shipyard in 1841, and New Bedford was her homeport for 60 of the 80 years she was active in the whale fishery. When her whaling years were over, she was opened as an exhibit in nearby Round Hill at the estate of Col. Edward Green. It was only after his death in 1936, when no provision in his will had been made for the upkeep of the Morgan, did the ship find her way to Mystic, Conn., where the Marine Historical Association, now Mystic Seaport, took over her stewardship in 1941. She has not been back to New Bedford, or even left the Mystic River, since that time.
The city held an opening ceremony at State Pier on June 28, the first day the ship was open to the public. Civic leaders and politicians, among them Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. William Keating, and New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, praised the ship and the 38th Voyage project and hoped the visit inaugurates a new era of prosperity for the city.
Mystic Seaport President Steve White told the gathered crowd that the Morgan was not the Museum’s ship, nor New Bedford’s ship, but that she is America’s ship.
“We undertake this voyage to teach and to help America understand its maritime heritage more fully and to make it possible for you to teach our younger generations that this ship and this voyage are important, and that they should take notice and agree that they will become her stewards when all of us are gone,” White said.
As Mayor Mitchell raised the city’s flag on the ship, two descendants of whalers—Daniel Rodriguez and Bruce Gamaranzo—rang the Morgan’s bell 38 times to commemorate her 38 voyages, after which the ship was declared open.
An Immersive Experience
To date, thousands have flocked to the pier to take in a remarkable experience. In addition to touring the ship, visitors can learn about the Morgan, whales, and whaling, and their importance to American history in a 22,000 square-foot dockside exhibition. There is a video and display panels that explain the history and significance of the 173-year-old vessel, the important role the whaling industry played in this country’s economic history, how the Morgan and whaleships were an early connector of different cultures, and how America’s perception of the natural world has changed over time. Hands-on activities include knot-tying, handling samples of wood used in the restoration, and searching the Morgan’s crew lists for familiar names or hometown connections.
A focal point is Spouter, a 46-foot-long, life-sized inflatable model of a sperm whale. Visitors can participate in a “What Bubbles Up?” activity by writing down their whale-related memory, question, or sketch and attaching it to a humpback whale sculpture.
Mystic Seaport interpreters demonstrate the 19th-century maritime skills of a cooper, shipsmith, ropemaker, and whaleboat rower. There are live performances including sea chanteys, the interactive “Tale of a Whaler,” and a condensed rendition of the novel Moby-Dick – “Moby-Dick in Minutes.” Visitors even have the opportunity to try their hand at rowing a whaleboat during select times.
Voyage partner, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, is present with an exhibit booth to explain how the National Marine Sanctuaries interpret America’s maritime past, promote ocean conservation, and engage in cutting-edge research. They show how whales feed and what they feed on, and present videos that feature information on the National Marine Sanctuary System, whales, whale research, and whaling heritage. Kids can even create their own whale hat.
The Morgan and the dockside exhibit will be open to the public in New Bedford through July 6. The hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last boarding of the ship at 4 p.m.
The next leg on the ship’s 38th Voyage is a short sail to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy at the mouth of the Cape Cod Canal scheduled for July 7. The ship will not be open to the public, but will overnight there in preparation for being towed through the canal en route to Provincetown the following day.
She will return to the Maritime Academy after a stop next to the USS Constitution in Boston, and be open to the public from July 26-27.
For the latest updates on the Morgan‘s status and opportunities to board her and experience the dockside exhibit, please visit our 38th Voyage page.
MYSTIC — Mystic Seaport and Tall Ships America, the National Sail Training Organization representing the United States, are proud to announce that July 12, 2014 is “Sail for Tall Ships Day.” Tall ships and traditional sailing vessels around America will sail on this day to honor the whaleship Charles W. Morgan, as she sails on her 38th Voyage calling at historic New England ports.
Painstakingly restored over five years by Mystic Seaport, the Charles W. Morgan is the last remaining ship of the American whaling fleet that once numbered more than 2,700 vessels. Built and launched in 1841, the Morgan is now America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat. The Morgan left Mystic Seaport on May 17, 2014 to embark on her 38th Voyage. Where once the Morgan’s cargo was whale oil and baleen, today her cargo is knowledge, and she sails to engage communities with their maritime heritage and raise awareness about the changing perception about whales and whaling.
On July 12, sailing ships around the nation will put to sea to honor the restoration of this great ship, the heritage she represents, and to celebrate the traditional skills of seamanship that are sustained and hard at work in the Tall Ships America fleet today. From Maine, to California, to the inland seas of the Great Lakes, to the sounds of the Pacific Northwest, all manner of brigs, barques, schooners, brigantines and other traditional sailing craft will hoist sail this day in common cause with the Morgan and her crew. It is a national celebration of nautical skill, courage, and adventure that defined America as a young seafaring nation in 1841 when the Morgan was launched, and still defines us as a maritime power today.
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Steamboat SABINO
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A Homecoming
NEW BEDFORD — Mystic Seaport sailed the whaleship Charles W. Morgan to a celebratory homecoming at her original homeport of New Bedford on Wednesday, June 25. The Morgan, a National Historic Landmark and America’s oldest commercial vessel still afloat, was built and launched in New Bedford in 1841, and sailed from there for most of her lengthy whaling career.
After a comprehensive restoration that lasted more than five years, the ship is on a ceremonial 38th Voyage to historic ports in Southern New England. Her last voyage, her 37th, ended in 1921. Today she sailed from Vineyard Haven, Mass.
“History has never been so alive as it was just now when we brought the Charles W. Morgan through the hurricane barrier at the mouth of the harbor. To see the people of New Bedford turn out to welcome us and show how they appreciate the project and how it validates the great history of this city was a great moment for all of us.” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport.
The Morgan’s homecoming to New Bedford is a major event for the city, which was once the largest whaling port in the world. The ship was last in New Bedford in November 1941, and has not returned since.
“The Morgan’s return showcases her former homeport to new audiences around the nation. The ship is a living witness to New Bedford’s Golden Age of Sail, and celebrates a tradition which remains unbroken; men and women continue to go down to the sea in ships, making the Port of New Bedford the busiest commercial fishing port in America,” said James Russell, president and CEO of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
He added, “Our hearty congratulations and deep appreciation goes to the Mystic Seaport community for their herculean accomplishment in restoring the Morgan to full seaworthiness, and especially for their brave decision in taking her to sea. We can take inspiration as our city looks to restore its own many authentic treasures such as the Ernestina and the Seamen’s Bethel, as the renaissance of the historic district continues to unfold. This maritime pageant is like no other in living memory, one in which so many have contributed so much. In the Morgan’s wake, we can best honor her by envisioning other grand activities for the port, which similarly inspires great accomplishment and captures the public imagination.”
The Morgan departed Tisbury Wharf in Vineyard Haven around 9:30 a.m.and was towed down Vineyard Sound and through Quick’s Hole into Buzzards Bay. Once there, the ship cast off the tow and sailed across the bay in a series of tacks. At one point, she was clocked at speed of 8 knots. From Quick’s Hole to New Bedford, the Morgan was joined by a spectator flotilla of more than 40 boats.
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The WoodenBoat Show
Brooklin, Maine — The 23rd annual WoodenBoat Show, presented by WoodenBoat magazine and hosted by Mystic Seaport June 27-29, 2014, will celebrate three of N. G. Herreshoff’s most beloved designs: the 12 ½, Newport 29, and Buzzards Bay 25. All three were originally conceived in 1914, and turn 100 this year.
Andy Giblin, partner at MP&G Wood Boatbuilding and Yacht Restoration, is heading up the effort to bring owners of these classic designs together at the show. “This will be a rendezvous to kick off the 2014 sailing season,” says Giblin. “Our hope is that the show will bring people together who are excited to share their passion and energy for restoring and maintaining their yachts.”
Attendees at the show will be able to view many examples of the three designs at the show. The participating boats will be grouped together at the north end of the Museum and on the New York Yacht Club dock.
Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. built 360 of the popular 12 ½s between 1914 and 1943, and builders have continued to produce the design up to the present day. Originally designed for children, the 12 ½ has proved a coveted design due to its roomy cockpit, ease of handling, and capable performance. Several yacht clubs still race the “H Class,” and many families use them for casual daysailing.
The Newport 29, by comparison, is a rare design. Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. originally built only three of them in 1914: Comet, Dolphin, and Mischief, and a fourth, Teaser, in 1926. Dolphin and Mischief still actively sail in the Newport area, and are slated to be at the show. Ballentine’s Boat Shop recently restored Teaser, and will display the boat as an example of their craftsmanship. Also in attendance will be Rogue, the 1950s iteration of the design, built by Seth Persson, and boatbuilder Brion Rieff will bring his 2008 cold-molded version, Iolanthe.
The Buzzards Bay 25 is one of the largest daysailers of the classic boat world, a keel centerboarder known for its powerful, exciting performance on the water. The original class had only five vessels, four of which are still extant: Mink, Bagatelle, Whitecap, and Vitessa. Whitecap, now Aria, another MP&G restoration, can be viewed at the Herreshoff Marine Museum. Bagatelle‘s owners have indicated their boat will be at the show, and Giblin stated MP&G will bring Mink, the first boat of the class. Mink is currently undergoing a major restoration at the MP&G shop.
“Tools of the Trade” Skills Demonstrations
This year’s theme is “tools of the trade” and the skills demonstrations on each of the three days will include “something old, something new.” All of the presenters are professional boatbuilders and there will be five demonstrations daily: 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4 p.m. (There will be no 4 p.m. presentation on Sunday, June 29.) The demonstrations will focus on traditional boatbuilding methods in the morning and the latest techniques in the afternoon.
F. Jay Smith will start off each day at 10 a.m. demonstrating tools used in traditional Scandinavian boatbuilding. Jay, of Anacortes, Washington, served apprenticeships in Norway and the Faroe Islands to learn the building-by-eye techniques of those lands from master craftsmen. On Friday, he’ll show how specialized axes are used, and his Saturday demonstration focuses on planes, especially a two-man type favored in Scandinavian boatyards. On Sunday, he’ll talk about “Whetstones and Sharpening: Early Iron Age to Present,” recognizing that sharp tools are the foundation of good craftsmanship.
A more modern tool of traditional boatbuilding will be shown by Roger Hambidge, a good hand with a shipwright’s adze, an essential tool in 19th-century New England shipyards. On Saturday, Mystic Seaport shipwright Walter Ansel will show how to put together an apparatus for steam-bending wood, and on Sunday how to use tools essential for drawing out a boat’s plans full-sized.
Homemade tools for boatbuilding are a specialty of Harry Bryan, a New Brunswick boatbuilder, who will pass on his knowledge of metalworking and specific tools he has found most useful in his own inventive techniques. Tools used to drive cotton and oakum into planking seams will be demonstrated by Rob Whalen, the project leader on the recent restoration of the Charles W. Morgan.
Each afternoon starting at 2:30 p.m., Mystic Seaport shipwright Scott Noseworthy will demonstrate how large-capacity shipyard tools handle large timbers of the kind used in ships like the Morgan.
On Friday at 4 p.m., John Brooks, a designer and builder from Brooklin, Maine, will show why routers and jigs have become an essential part of the boatbuilding he favors, which uses light plywood and powerful epoxy glues. On Saturday, Brion Rieff, who also runs a Brooklin boatyard, will show how vacuum-bagging has transformed lamination, the layering of thin pieces of wood to achieve the curved shapes so crucial to boat structures. And David Snediker, owner of Taylor & Snediker Woodworking in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, will show the efficient use of his favorite hand-held power tools for boatbuilding on Sunday at 1 p.m.
“People come to the WoodenBoat Show because they want to look at the beautiful boats on the dock, but they also want a firsthand look at how these boats were built,” says Jim Miller, president of WoodenBoat Publications. “This is one of the things that makes the show special, and different every year.”
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A Vineyard Welcome
VINEYARD HAVEN — The 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan arrived in Vineyard Haven today in the next phase of her 38th Voyage to ports across Southern New England. Greeted by a flotilla of schooners, catboats, and other small craft, both sail and powered, the ship was eased into the port with the assistance of the tug Sirius. Volleys of cannon fire erupted as she passed the breakwater and into the harbor.
The Morgan departed Newport, RI, this morning and was towed out of Narragansett Bay and across the mouth of Buzzards Bay into Vineyard Sound. Once in the Sound, the crew cast off the tow and continued by sail alone to the mouth of the harbor at Vineyard Haven. The entire trip was about 42 nautical miles.
The Morgan is currently berthed at Tisbury Wharf.
“We are very excited to take the Charles W. Morgan to the Vineyard because the ship has a lot of ties to the island. Many of her crew hailed from this place, and it is great to bring her here so the community can reconnect with their whaling heritage,” said Capt. Kip Files, the 22nd master of the Morgan.
The ship will be open to the public from Saturday, June 21 to Tuesday, June 24. Visitors can tour the ship and explore an expansive dockside exhibition that includes information on the history of whaling, demonstrations of maritime skills, and live music and performances. A focal point is Spouter, a 46-foot-long, life-sized inflatable model of a sperm whale. Visitors also can participate in a “What Bubbles Up?” activity by writing down their whale-related memory, question, or sketch and attaching it to a humpback whale sculpture. Visitors will even have the opportunity to try their hand at rowing a whaleboat during select times.
The hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, with the last boarding of the ship to take place at 4:30 p.m. There is a suggested admission of $5 for those ages 6 years and older. Children ages 5 years and younger are admitted for free, as are current Mystic Seaport members with their membership card.
The dockside exhibition is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
