Charles W. Morgan (ship)

For the naval officer, see Charles W. Morgan (naval officer).
Charles W. Morgan
Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport, CT
History
United States
Owner:
Builder: Jethro and Zachariah Hillman, New Bedford, Massachusetts
Launched: 1841
Identification:
Status: Museum ship
General characteristics
Tonnage: 351.3 (Old Tons); 313.8 (New Tons)[2]
Length: 113 ft (34 m) LOA
Beam: 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m)
Depth: 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Sail plan: Double-topsail bark rig; 13,000 sq ft (1,200 m2) of sail[3]
Charles W. Morgan
Location Mystic, Connecticut
Coordinates 41°21′46.04″N 71°57′54.89″W / 41.3627889°N 71.9652472°W / 41.3627889; -71.9652472Coordinates: 41°21′46.04″N 71°57′54.89″W / 41.3627889°N 71.9652472°W / 41.3627889; -71.9652472
Built 1841
Architectural style Other
Part of Mystic Bridge Historic District (#79002671)
NRHP Reference # 66000804
Significant dates
Added to NRHP 13 November 1966[4]
Designated NHL 13 November 1966[5]
Designated CP August 31, 1979

Charles W. Morgan is an American whaling ship built in 1841 whose active service period was during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ships of this type were usually used to harvest the blubber of whales for whale oil, which was commonly used in lamps. The ship has served as a museum ship since the 1940s, and is now an exhibit at the Mystic Seaport museum in Mystic, Connecticut. She is the world's oldest surviving merchant vessel, and the only surviving wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet.[1] She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Construction

Charles Waln Morgan chose Jethro and Zachariah Hillman's shipyard in New Bedford, Massachusetts to construct a new ship.[6]:23 Charles W. Morgan's live oak keel was laid down in February 1841 and fastened together with copper bolts. The bow and stern pieces of live oak were secured to the keel by an apron piece. The sturdy stern post was strengthened with hemlock root and white oak. Yellow pine shipped from North Carolina was used for the ship's beams and hemlock or hackmatack was used for the hanging knees.[6]:29

Construction of Charles W. Morgan proceeded until 19 April 1841, when the workers went on strike, demanding a ten-hour work day.[6]:30 The strike gathered support until it encompassed the shipyard, the oil refineries, and the cooper shops; Charles Morgan was appointed chairman of the employers and given the task of resolving the strike.[6]:30 Morgan opposed their demands, and a meeting ended in failure with four master mechanics. On 6 May, an agreement was reached when the workers accepted a ten-and-a-half-hour workday.[6]:32 Work resumed on the ship without incident and she was launched on 21 July 1841.[6]:32 The ship was registered as a caravel of 106 1⁄2 feet (32.5 m) in length, 27 feet 2 1⁄2 inches (8.293 m) inches in breadth, and 13 feet 7 1⁄4 inches (4.147 m) in depth.[6]:33 Her displacement was 314 gross tons [7] The ship's construction and rigging cost a total of $32,562.08 and was assessed a shipyard fee of $2.25 per day for its 258 days of construction; labor charges was billed at $1.75 a day for 129½ days.[6]:25

The ship was outfitted at Rotch's Wharf for the next two months while preparations were made for its first voyage.[6]:34–35 The name Charles W. Morgan was initially rejected by her namesake builder before being used. Captain Thomas Norton sailed Charles W. Morgan into the Atlantic alongside Adeline Gibbs and Nassau towards the Azores.[6]:35 A stop was made at Porto Pim (Horta) on Faial Island to gather supplies before crossing the Atlantic and passing Cape Horn before charting a course to the north.[6]:38 On December 13, the men launched in their whaling boats and took their first whale, harpooning it and killing it with the thrust of a lance under the side fin.[6]:43 Charles W. Morgan entered the port of Callau in early February and departed again on the 10th for the Galapagos Islands. In 1844, the ship sailed to the Kodiak Grounds before sailing for home on August 18.[6]:60 Charles W. Morgan returned to her home port in New Bedford on 2 January 1845.[6]:60 The voyage of three years and three months resulted in 59 whales being processed for 1,600 barrels of sperm oil, 800 barrels of right whale oil, and five tons of whale bone that netted a total of $53,052.56.[6]:61

Service life

In her 80 years of service from her home port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, she made 37 voyages ranging in length from nine months to five years. Charles W. Morgan, in total, brought home 54,483 barrels of sperm and whale oil and 152,934 pounds of whalebone. She sailed in the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans, surviving ice and snow storms. Her crew survived a cannibal attack in the South Pacific. Between 1888 and 1904 she was based in San Francisco.

Charles W. Morgan had more than 1,000 whalemen of all races and nationalities in her lifetime. Her crew included not only Americans, but sailors from Cape Verde, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Guadeloupe, and Norfolk Island. The ship's crew averaged around 33 men per voyage. As with other whaleships in the 19th century, Charles W. Morgan was often home to the captain's family. Charles W. Morgan was owned and managed by the J. & W. R. Wing Company of New Bedford.[8]

During her years of service, Charles W. Morgan was used in several movies, including Miss Petticoats (1916), Down to the Sea in Ships (1922) and Java Head (1923).

Preservation

Charles W. Morgan was nearly destroyed in 1924 when the steamer Sankaty caught fire and broke free of her mooring lines.[6]:5[9][10][11] The burning Sankaty drifted across the river and into Charles W. Morgan's port quarter, but the Fairhaven firemen managed to save Charles W. Morgan.[6]:5 This event spurred Harry Neyland and some New Bedford citizens to restore and preserve Charles W. Morgan, but they were unsuccessful in their efforts. Neyland then persuaded Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green to save the ship.[6]:5 Neyland appealed to Green that the Morgan was of historicial importance and was a family heirloom because Charles W. Morgan was once co-owned by Green's grandfather and his wife's company.[6]:5 Green had the ship towed to his estate in Round Hill (Dartmouth, Massachusetts) and founded Whaling Enshrined, consisting of himself, Neyland, and John Bullard, the great-grandson of Charles Waln Morgan.[6]:6

Charles W. Morgan underwent restoration by Captain George Fred Tilton and was turned into an exhibition for Green's estate in a berth constructed by Frank Taylor.[6]:6 On the 86th anniversary of Charles W. Morgan's launch, Green held a dedicatory ceremony and gave the ship to Whaling Enshrined on July 21, 1926.[6]:6 Charles W. Morgan's fate came into question when Tilton died in 1932 and Green died in 1935, resulting in lengthy court proceedings over the Green's estate.[6]:7–9 The 1938 New England hurricane damaged Charles W. Morgan's hull and tore the sails; Whaling Enshrined attempted to secure funds for the ship but were unable to do so.[6]:9 In 1941, Charles W. Morgan was saved by the Marine Historical Association (later renamed Mystic Seaport) based on Taylor's word that the ship could be freed and towed to Mystic, Connecticut.[6]:10 Taylor's crew dug Charles W. Morgan from her berth and dredged a channel for her to pass through, but the first attempt to pull the ship free was unsuccessful. More digging and caulking of the ship preceded the Morgan's successful tugging into the channel, and the century-old hull withstood the move and floated into bay provided by the Coast Guard cutter General Greene.[6]:11 Charles W. Morgan was towed to the old berth in Fairhaven for several days of preparations and repairs prior to the trip to Mystic.[6]:11

On November 5, 1941, General Greene pulled Charles W. Morgan from the wharf only to have her be caught by the tide and swept downstream, coming to rest on a mud flat and requiring two hours to be freed.[6]:4 The journey came to an end on November 8 when Charles W. Morgan passed through the Mystic bridge and was moored in the Mystic Seaport.[6]:17–18 The Mystic Seaport took shape around Charles W. Morgan with the restoration of its buildings and historic ships that came to reside at the museum.[6]:18 Stackpole writes, "Over it all, the Morgan presided like Old Neptune-the centerpiece, the king seated on a throne of gravel, towering high above the scene."[6]:19

Restoration

Charles W. Morgan in dry-dock undergoing restoration

Charles W. Morgan arrived at Mystic Seaport in December 1941. The ship was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.[5][1] In 1971, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Charles W. Morgan.

For the first 30 years of the ship's life at Mystic Seaport, she was surrounded by a bed of sand to prevent her from sinking. Even so, she was open to the public and was the centerpiece of a recreated 19th Century maritime village museum inspired by Colonial Williamsburg. She is the only preserved 19th Century whaling ship in the world.

A restoration and preservation project was undertaken in 1968 which resulted in her being made seaworthy, and the sand bed was removed. Prior to the 1968 restoration, she had a wide white stripe on her sides painted with large black squares that resembled gun ports when viewed at a distance. This "camouflage" was often employed by 19th Century merchant ships to make them resemble warships so as to deter pirates and hostile navies.

In 2010, Mystic Seaport was engaged in a multimillion-dollar restoration, intended to restore the ship to seaworthy status. Charles W. Morgan was re-launched into the Mystic River on July 21, 2013, marking the 172nd anniversary of the vessel’s initial launch.[12][13][14] During the summer of 2014, Charles W. Morgan sailed her 38th voyage on tour of New England seaports which included New London, Newport, Boston, and her home town of New Bedford.[15]

In culture

1971 U.S. commemorative stamp honoring Charles W. Morgan by Melbourne Brindle

Charles W. Morgan has been depicted in mixed media in different ways for nearly a century. In 1971, Melbourne Brindle of Bridgeport, Connecticut, designed four commemorative stamps of historic landmarks including Charles W. Morgan.[16]

Notes

In The Last Sail Down East Charles W. Morgan's length was reported as being "just over 105 feet long".[17]:198 The book conflicts with Stackpole by listing the ship's return from its first voyage on January 1, 1845 instead of the following day.[17]:199 The goods detailed within match, but the figure of $69,591 is listed instead of $53,052.56.[17]:199

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles W. Morgan.

Other preserved 19th-century sailing ships:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Schroer, Blanche Higgins; Bradford, S. Sydney (11 December 1974). "The Charles W. Morgan" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination. National Park Service.and
    "Accompanying 4 photos, from 1974 and undated" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination. National Park Service. 11 December 1974.
  2. ↑ Davis, Lance E.; Gallman, Robert E.; Gleiter, Karen (1997). "Chapter 6: Capital" (PDF). In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816–1906 (pdf). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Table 6.11 at p. 254. ISBN 0-226-13789-9. See p. 215 (pdf) & fn. 5 for discussion of the difference in tonnage measurements.
  3. ↑ "Charles W. Morgan – Whaling Ship". Mystic Seaport. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  4. ↑ National Park Service (23 January 2007). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  5. 1 2 "Charles W. Morgan (Bark)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Stackpole, Edouard (1967). The Charles W. Morgan. Meredith Press.
  7. ↑ "A Trip on the Whaling Ship Charles W. Morgan | History Under Sail -- Yankee Magazine". Yankee Magazine. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  8. ↑ "Successful whaler returns" (pdf). The New York Times. 30 October 1900.
  9. ↑ The Dukes County Intelligencer. 24 (4). May 1983. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ "Reminiscences of The Last Voyage of the Bark Wanderer". The American Neptune. Peabody Museum of Salem: 18. 1949.
  11. ↑ "Pacific Steam Navigation Company". Sea Breezes. 56 (443). November 1982.
  12. ↑ Broad, William J. (16 August 2010). "A Quest to Make the Morgan Seaworthy". Science. The New York Times.
  13. ↑ "Charles W Morgan - Mystic Seaport". Mystic Seaport Museum. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
  14. ↑ Bond, Michaelle (21 July 2013). "Museum Relaunches Wooden Whaler Built in 1841". N.Y. / Region. The New York Times.
  15. ↑ "The 38th Voyage: Morgan readies to sail again". The Day. May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Historic Stamps, Famed Car, Make October Special for Area Artist". The Bridgeport Post (Bridgeport, Connecticut). 3 October 1971. p. 31. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 Tod, Giles (1965). The Last Sail Down East. Barre.
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