Visit of the Whaleship Charles W. Morgan

Ivy Ashe

Last of Her Kind, Whaleship Charles W. Morgan Has Strong Ties to the Vineyard

Sara Brown

The Charles W. Morgan came back to life this spring.

The last American wooden whaling ship once again had saltwater under her 173-year-old keel. Ocean winds buffeted her new suit of sails. She has another captain and a new crew occupying bunks and climbing the rigging.

When the Charles W. Morgan first launched on a summer day in New Bedford in 1841, there was nothing particularly special about her. By all accounts she was a fine wooden ship, but just one of 2,700 ships that... Read more...

stackpole with whaleboat
Strong Ties: Circle of Life Revolves Around Last Great Whaleship
Yesterday he was the seven-year-old boy who grew up and played on the grounds of the Mystic Seaport Museum with his twin brother. Sometimes they would climb through a vent in the creaky old Charles W...
Young Whaleman's Logs Give Voice to First Voyage
The following is taken from the log book of the first voyage of the Charles W. Morgan as recorded by second mate, James Coffin Osborn of Edgartown. Mr. Osborn was 26 years old at the time but this...
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Fish in His Blood: Morgan's Edgartown Roots Still Strong in S. Bailey Norton
Most kids had paper routes growing up in Edgartown in the 1920s, but S. Bailey Norton Jr. had a fish route. This makes perfect sense as Mr. Norton is the oldest living descendant of the first captain...
Morgan out of water
The Luckiest Whaleship's Local Connections
This article appeared first in the May/June 2014 issue of  Martha's Vineyard Magazine.  No one involved could have imagined it. Not the workers trudging through the snow to begin construction of the...
whaleboat
Vineyard Craftsmen Built Replica of Morgan's Whaleboat
This story first appeared in the May/June 2014 issue of Martha's Vineyard Magazine. Dozens of vessels of all sizes, shapes, and degrees of refinement have slipped into the water from the Gannon and...
Morgan at wharf
Weathering Storms, Pirates and Wars, Morgan Was Nearly Consumed by Fire
Islanders from Nonouti attacked her in the western Pacific. She caught fire off the Azores, shipped seas over her stern during a storm as she approached Cape Horn and steered around mines during...
Vineyarders at the Helm: Seven Who Captained the Luckiest Ship
The Charles W. Morgan was known as a lucky ship, avoiding near disaster on numerous occasions during her 80 years of traversing the oceans. And much of this good fortune was the direct result of the...
scrimshaw whaling
When Pirates Roamed the High Seas
This story first appeared in the May/June issue of Martha's Vineyard Magazine. On June 18, 1722, a small group of men from Martha’s Vineyard were out on what should have been a short whaling voyage...
The Real Housewives of Martha's Vineyard
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...