The Charles W. Morgan's enduring cargo is not the oil and bone of her travels, but the story that she alone survives to tell. Matthew Stackpole, ship's historian for her restoration at Mystic Seaport and a West Tisbury resident, recounts the whaleship's many Vineyard connections.
One day next week citizens of the Island will look out over Vineyard Sound and watch as a striking vestige of our whaling heritage passes by.
Whether the whaleship Charles W. Morgan will sail into Tisbury Wharf on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday depends, fittingly, on the seas. Her final ceremonial voyage completes a journey that began in 1841 when she set sail from New Bedford for the first time with a Vineyard captain and seventeen Island crew members aboard.
For the first time in nearly a century, the whaleship Charles W. Morgan had seawater under her hull and the wind billowing her sails as she cast off Saturday from New London for a sea trial.
Charles W. Morgan visits Martha's Vineyard June 21 to 24. Martha's Vineyard Museum gears up for visit with lecture on history of whaling by author Eric Jay Dolin.
The Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world, departs from Mystic Seaport Saturday for her 38th voyage.
In about a month, the Morgan will be docking in Vineyard waters, part of a three-month journey that will bring the whaling era back to life.
More than 170 years after the wooden ship first set sail, and nearly 100 years after her last whaling trip, the Morgan’s 38th voyage is fast approaching. She will visit the Vineyard in June.