Whaling Ship Charles W. Morgan
This is the Harden Young and probably another elder standing on the Charles W. Morgan, the world’s last surviving 19th-century wooden whaling ship.
Built in 1841 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the Charles W. Morgan is a 113-foot, 3-masted whaling bark. During her 80-year active career (1841–1921), she completed 37 voyages across the world's oceans.
In the 1930s when this photo was taken, the ship was preserved and on display at Colonel Edward Howland Robinson Green’s Round Hill estate in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts (1925–1941). Colonel Green created an artificial sand berth enclosed by a reproduction of a historic New Bedford whaling wharf—complete with the wooden barrels and pier structures seen in the foreground. Today, the Charles W. Morgan is a designated National Historic Landmark housed at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.
Distinct Features:
White Curved Davits: The prominent white curved beams along the top sides of the hull were used to lower and raise the crew’s wooden whaleboats.
Painted "Gunports": The black hull with a white band and alternating black squares mimics a 19th-century warship design (a style commonly painted onto merchant and whaling vessels in the era to deter pirates).
