On another page is printed a poem by J. C. A. about the old whaler, Charles W. Morgan, who in her last days is serving the movies in a local color capacity.
All along the northern shoreline, Islanders stood poised and camera-ready to capture the historic moment Wednesday afternoon. They were eager to welcome the majestic whaling ship, the Charles W. Morgan.
For me, the ship came to life when she made what I will always remember as The Turn. We were at the far end of Vineyard Sound early Tuesday afternoon, sailing to the east.
What follows are excerpts from the Gazette’s live blog of the Morgan’s historic voyage from Newport, Rhode Island, to Vineyard Haven on Wednesday, June 18.
This article first appeared in the May/June issue of Martha's Vineyard Magazine.
“For a girl or a woman to embark on a long whaling voyage required great fortitude and determination,” wrote Henry Beetle Hough, co-author with Emma Mayhew Whiting of Whaling Wives, published in 1953. Sailing with her whaling-captain husband meant that a wife could avoid a separation that might last as long as five years, but life as the only woman aboard ship was, said Hough and Whiting, “a prospect of bleakness and hazard.”
The Charles W. Morgan arrived at Vineyard Haven harbor to a barrage of cannonfire and boat horns while onlookers gathered to witness her arrival, some in tears. The Morgan is the last wooden whaling ship in the world.
In the log book of the first voyage of the Morgan, 26-year-old second mate James Coffin Osborn of Edgartown relates the joys and agonie of whaling.
