MYSTIC, Conn. — The shipbuilders are long dead, their knowledge gone. The shipyard no longer exists. No blueprints survive, nor ship’s models.But the Charles W. Morgan is still here — the world’s last surviving wooden whaling vessel, built in 1841. And restorers are spending $10 million to turn the museum piece into a working ship able to ply the unruly sea. They plan to sail the ship on its first voyage in nearly a century, opening a new chapter in its long career.
Built in New Bedford, Mass., a bustling port known as the whaling capital of the world, the Morgan sailed the globe for eight decades in pursuit of leviathans, escaping fire and cannibals, Confederate raiders and Arctic ice. She brought home thousands of barrels of whale oil that lighted homes and cities. She also delivered tons of baleen, the horny material from the mouths of certain whales that was made into buggy whips and corset stays. In 1941, its centenary, the Morgan was towed to Mystic Seaport for museum display and in 1966 was named a national historic landmark.
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Author: WILLIAM J. BROAD
