# Whaler Charles Morgan



## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

*last surviving wooden whaling ship ready to ply waters again after refit*

*Wooden Whaler Charles W Morgan*

5:30 AM Monday Jul 15, 2013 NZ Herald 



Quote


The restored vessel will be lowered into the water on July 21, the 172nd anniversary of the original launch. Photo / AP 
It survived countless storms and raids by secessionist Confederates during the United States Civil War while taking crews across unchartered oceans in search of whales whose oil lit the world.
The Charles W. Morgan, the world's last surviving wooden whaling ship and America's oldest merchant ship, is hitting the water again after a nearly US$7 million ($8.9 million), five-year restoration project at Mystic Seaport.
"She is, if you will, an authentic way to enter the past," said Matthew Stackpole, the ship's historian.
"The Morgan makes 200 years of American maritime history come alive. It reflects really so much about the way this country developed. It's absolutely thrilling to watch this ship come to life again."
The 380-tonne, 32m-long ship will be lowered into the Mystic River on July 21, the 172nd anniversary of the vessel's original launch in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Work will continue on the ship, which is expected to visit historic ports in the north-eastern New England states next year, including those in Boston; New Bedford, Massachusetts; New London, Connecticut; Newport, Rhode Island; Provincetown, Massachusetts; and Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.
The ship, a National Historic Landmark, made 37 voyages over 80 years, starting in 1841, across every ocean in the world from the heyday to the waning days of whaling. It developed a reputation as a lucky ship, escaping the fate of other ships destroyed by storms and Confederate raids.
One of its crews was stranded in Russia after their boat was dragged by a whale and they lost the Morgan. By the time they got back to San Francisco, the crew, who were presumed dead, got to read their own obituaries, Stackpole said.
The Morgan was among some 2700 ships that hunted for whales for 200 years. Oil from whales helped fuel the Industrial Revolution, both as a lubricant and as profits from the industry were ploughed into newly emerging manufacturing.
The ship offers modern-day lessons, Stackpole said.
"The quest for energy is a relevant story today as it was in her lifetime. Her cargo today is history; it's not oil any more in all its multifaceted complicated aspects."
Mystic acquired the ship in 1941 and since then, 20 million museum visitors have set foot on it. It has been restored before but nothing as extensive as the latest project, which involved 34 full-time workers and others.
The ship was hauled out of the water in 2008 and stabilised. Like many wooden ships, the Morgan had become misshapen with the centre bending upward and the bow and stern dropping down.
Thousands of digital images were taken along with careful measurements to do***ent the ship's condition. High-tech laser scanning created a 3-D model of the vessel and x-ray technology was used to examine nail and spike fastenings to avoid any unnecessary intrusions.
One of the biggest challenges was finding wood that would replicate the material it was built with in 1841.
Restorers were able to get large old oaks destroyed from hurricanes, including Katrina in 2005.
The Morgan's tradition of luck was revived a few years ago when workers excavating the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston for a hospital discovered a stockpile of wood.
The restoration included replacing 80 per cent of the framing below the water line, an inner ceiling with 70 planks as long as 13m and 174 planks on the outside and rebuilding the stern.
The restoration was able to keep 15 to 18 per cent of the original wood.
Unquote


The newspaper showed shipwrights replanking the hull with very thick timbers seemingly 4 inches thick
Any more info from USA members?

Bob


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## Mike Craine (Oct 16, 2006)

It looked a mess four years ago. Good luck to them. Why can't we keep our historic ships going instead of leaving them to decay or just broken up.


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

This is wonderful news for a splendid ship!

I saw her at Mystic in 06 and would not have described her as any kind of "mess" then. Obviously an old lady, but certainly pleasing to the cursory eye.

The most interesting aspect (for me) was to learn how (within the last 250 years) any vessel of less than 100 feet in length could ever have been considered as a big ship, on any scale. She is built like a box. Broad as a battleship, solid and stout as O'Rafferty might have put it. Her lines and dimensions must be about as buxom, ample and splendid as it ever was possible to cram into anything less than 100 feet. Sailors talk about the feel of a ship. She has the feel of a big ship, in every respect.

Am delighted hear of her overhaul and wish all well.

Must read Nathaniel Philbrick again - "In the Heart of the Sea".


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