More than 180 years ago, a familiar sight left New Bedford Harbor as the whaleship Charles W. Morgan began her second whaling voyage on June 10, 1845, under the command of Captain J.D. Samson. Built and launched in New Bedford in 1841, the Morgan was among the vessels that helped establish the city as the center of the American whaling industry. Over an 80-year career, she completed 37 whaling voyages and today remains the last surviving American whaleship and the last surviving wooden whaleship in the world.
For the crew preparing to leave New Bedford in 1845, the voyage ahead would likely span years rather than months. Those mariners were part of the very community that inspired the founding of the New Bedford Port Society and the construction of the Seamen’s Bethel, where generations of sailors gathered before setting sail from one of the world’s busiest whaling ports. As we remember the departure of the Charles W. Morgan, we also remember the thousands of whalemen, merchant mariners, and fishermen whose lives were connected to the sea and whose stories continue to be preserved by the New Bedford Port Society.