Barque · United States
Charles W. Morgan
An American whaleship of 1841 — the oldest surviving commercial vessel in the United States.
Technical data
- Rig
- Barque
- Flag
- United States
- Home port
- Mystic Seaport
- Built
- 1841
- Shipyard
- J. & Z. HILLMAN, FAIRHAVEN
- Hull material
- Wood
- Length
- 51.5 m
- Beam
- 8.4 m
- Sail area
- 798 m²
- Sailing area
- East coast of the USA
An American fishing and whaling ship, first fully rigged and later rigged only as a barque, which saved on crew.
Between 1841 and 1886 she made ten voyages from New Bedford to the Pacific, plus one each to the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. In 1886 she went in search of new whaling grounds in the Bering Strait, the Beaufort Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk.
She was laid up at Fairhaven in 1913, made four further voyages in 1916, and gave up whaling in 1921 after a total of thirty-seven voyages.
She was later used in a number of film productions and has been a museum ship of the Mystic Seaport Museum since 1941. The restoration talked about from 2010 duly returned her to the sea: in the summer of 2014 she sailed her 38th voyage.