July 16, 2014 — The restored 1841 whale ship Charles W. Morgan sailed from Provincetown to Boston on Tuesday for a weeklong stay at the Charlestown Navy Yard, side by side with the USS Constitution.
Among the 59 passengers and crew were the president of the Boston construction firm that discovered 18 truckloads of long-buried timber from the 1800s for the project in Charlestown, a Melville scholar trying to get the feel of the whaling life, and the son of Jacques Cousteau.
“I thought she’d do well, but she’s doing even better than I expected,” said captain Kip Files, hired by Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport to lead the 38th voyage of the Morgan. “It brings so many people together.”
The ship, which has belonged to Mystic since 1941, embarked May 17 and will sail until Aug. 9, hitting five southern New England ports before Boston. It will visit the Mass. Maritime Academy and New London, Conn., before returning to Mystic.
Mystic Seaport spent $7.5 million over the last 5½ years to restore the ship to seaworthy condition. It is the last surviving whale ship still afloat, and its berth next to the Constitution is a first-time meeting of the two ships, expected to draw thousands of visitors when the Morgan opens for tours Friday through Tuesday.
“I can’t wait to see the ships next to each other and get that sense of scale,” said Anne Grimes Rand, president of the USS Constitution Museum.
With light winds, a tight schedule, and thunderstorms in the forecast, the Morgan was towed from Provincetown to Boston’s outer harbor by the tug Sirius out of Vineyard Haven. But the crew still raised sails with cries of “Sheet ho!” They got in a short period under sail alone before hooking up to the tug again for the final approach to the dock.
Read the full story at the Boston Globe