By Matt Belden

The Mystic Seaport Museum houses the Charles W. Morgan, a historic whaling ship and a vital link to Connecticut’s maritime heritage. As the last surviving wooden whaling ship, the Morgan is representative of a typical 19th-century whaling vessel, yet her 80 year career—which spanned the peak of American whaling—and her preservation set her apart as exceptional.

American Whaling Industry

Whale fishery: attacking a right whale, between 1856 and 1907. – By Currier & Ives, Library of Congress. Used through Public Domain.

While the practice of commercial whaling started earlier, the American whaling industry flourished from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries. As the industry expanded, Connecticut port towns such as New London and Mystic emerged as prominent leaders—second only to towns in Massachusetts.

Whale products were prevalent throughout history, but demand surged during the Industrial Revolution. Whale oil, especially from sperm whales was the most profitable because it provided the era’s superior form of illuminant and lubricant. Factories, railroads, and textile mills increasingly relied on whale oil for lighting and machinery lubrication. Baleen also became an important plastic-like material used in the fashion industry for constructing hoop skirts, corsets, and other consumer goods.

Construction and Whaling Operations

Shipbuilders at the shipyard of Jethro and Zachariah Hillman in New Bedford, Massachusetts, built the Charles W. Morgan in 1841 for approximately $48,849.85. Her namesake, Charles Waln Morgan, was the principal investor in her construction and maiden voyage. Construction of the vessel was temporarily halted from April 19th to May 5th due to a strike in which workers demanded a shorter workday. Ultimately, an agreement was reached for a ten-and-a-half-hour day, and work resumed.

The Morgan measures 133 feet in overall length, including a 27.7-foot beam, and weighs approximately 313.75 tons. The vessel was originally constructed as a full-rigged ship, converted to a bark rig in 1867, and later updated to a topsail rig in 1881.

The tryworks (stove) on the deck of the Charles W. Morgan where whale blubber was rendered into oil. – By Wolfgang Fricke, Wikimedia Commons. Used through a CC BY 3.0 license.

The typical crew aboard consisted of 35 men. Around 30 men were assigned to the whaleboats while “idlers”—the cooper, carpenter, cook, steward, and ship’s boy—remained on the Morgan during hunts. As evidenced by the Morgan’s crew lists, a significant portion of the crew were men of color, hailing from places like Cabo Verde, Guam, Hawai’i, the Caribbean, and New England.

Whalers chased down harpooned whales in whaleboats and were pulled along during the notorious “Nantucket Sleighride.” Upon tiring the whale, the crew punctured its lung with a lance, and while floating it alongside the ship, they removed its blubber in 4-foot-wide and 10-inch-thick “blankets.” They cut these into smaller pieces, rendered the oil on deck in the vessel’s tryworks, and stored it in casks below deck.

Voyages and Acquisition

The Charles W. Morgan endured a storied career in the whaling industry before retiring in 1921. While most whaling ships lasted only a few decades, the Morgan completed an impressive 37 voyages under 21 masters.

The Morgan’s first voyage set sail from New Bedford, Massachusetts on September 6th, 1841, and lasted 40 months. The crew sailed around the Azores, Cabo Verde, along the South American coast, and to Cape Horn. The vessel returned to New Bedford on January 2nd, 1845, with cargo valued at $53,052.56. The voyage proved successful—the crew processed 59 whales into 1,600 barrels of sperm oil, eight hundred barrels of right whale oil, and five tons of whalebone.

After two successful voyages, Morgan sold his shares to Edward Mott Robinson in 1848. In 1863, Joseph and William R. Wing Company acquired the Morgan and managed her for 27 of her 37 whaling voyages.

The whaling industry followed the nation’s expansion westward, and the Morgan relocated to the West Coast. Between 1887 and 1905, the Morgan set off from San Francisco—the most active whaling port in the country—to hunt whales off the coast of Japan. The Morgan remained registered in New Bedford, however, and the vessel eventually returned to the East Coast to finish her career.

By the turn of the 20th century, the whaling industry was declining, and owners withdrew from the trade. Many vessels were destroyed, abandoned, or sold to independent owners. This change was evident when the Wing company sold the Morgan in 1916 to Captain Benjamin Cleveland for $6,000.

The Morgan embarked on her final whaling voyage in September 1920. She returned eight and a half months later in May 1921—her shortest whaling voyage—with approximately $25,534 worth of cargo. Though profitable, this voyage paled in comparison to modern diesel ships, which harvested thousands of whales annually; the Morgan processed only 2,500 over her entire career.

Cleveland sold the Morgan to Harry Neyland in 1921, and she laid fallow in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. After the steamer Sankaty caught fire and nearly destroyed the Morgan in 1924, Harry Neyland and locals attempted preservation efforts but were unsuccessful. They persuaded Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green—grandson of Edward Mott Robinson—to save the vessel and he purchased her later that year. Green opened her as a tourist attraction for the first time on his estate in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He, along with others, also founded Whaling Enshrined Inc., which assumed ownership of the Morgan in 1926.

Preservation

The Charles W. Morgan in dry-dock at the Mystic Seaport Museum in 2010 – By Rhvanwinkle, Wikimedia Commons. Used through a CC BY 3.0 license.

Although Green saved the Charles W. Morgan from ruin, his death in 1936 left no plans for the ship’s future. A hurricane in 1938 damaged the vessel’s hull and sails, Whaling Enshrined Inc. struggled to secure funds for repairs.

In 1941, the Marine Historical Association (later the Mystic Seaport Museum) acquired the Morgan. The vessel was dug out of her berth and towed to Fairhaven for preliminary repairs. Then, on November 8th, 1941, she arrived at her current home in Mystic, CT.

In 1968, the Morgan underwent restoration, and by 1973, she was refloated. In 2010, a multimillion-dollar restoration project allowed her to be relaunched for the 172nd anniversary of her initial launch. This made her the second oldest seaworthy wooden vessel in the world, after the U.S.S. Constitution.

Following the five year restoration at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard, the Morgan set sail on a ceremonious tour to multiple New England ports. She departed from Mystic on May 17th, 2014, and traveled to New London, Newport, Vineyard Haven, New Bedford, Provincetown, Boston, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy before returning on August 6th. This long-awaited 38th voyage reconnected communities to New England’s maritime history and raised awareness of conservation efforts.

Once at the seaport, the Morgan became the centerpiece of the Mystic Seaport Museum. Surrounded by historic buildings from traditional New England maritime villages, the ship is displayed within an environment that reflects the time and place of her original use, allowing future generations to learn about the nation’s rich maritime heritage.

Matt Belden is a historian who holds a B.A. in history from Eastern Connecticut State University.