Charles W. Morgan – Restored to Greatness


The last time the Charles W. Morgan was under sail was 1921 and Warren Harding was President.

Twenty years later, in November, 1941, the skies were leaden and the wind whipped the chilly sea air as the 1841 whaleship was towed from New Bedford, MA to Mystic CT.

The 100-year-old Charles W. Morgan, the world’s last wooden whale ship, was completing its last sea journey as it came to rest at Chubb’s Wharf at what is now Mystic Seaport.

Her whaling days had ended two decades before and she had been the pride of, and exhibited at, Colonel Edward H.R. Green’s Round Hill estate in South Dartmouth,  Massachusetts.

For the next seventy-plus years the Charles W. Morgan was hardly an idle ship.  More than 20-million visitors walked her decks and discovered the mysteries and excitement of the sea as she whispered lessons of whaling and sea life.

Restored in Mystic Seaport’s shipyard to her former sailing glory, the Charles W. Morgan is today the living embodiment of another time.  See the Charles W. Morgan exhibit at Mystic Seaport soon for a peek into another world and another time.