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New York Times highlights New Bedford…..again
 Many
thanks to Ann Brengle, President of the New Bedford
Whaling Museum, and Arthur Motta, Director of Tourism
and Marketing, and others for getting New Bedford’s
story to the Times
A Visit to New Bedford, Mass.
New York Times
By Ann Parson
Published: November 10, 2006
Photo Credit: Jodi Hilton
At noon every Jan. 3, the words “Call me Ishmael” sound
through the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass. It’s
the beginning of the annual marathon reading of
“Moby-Dick,” which will go on for 25 hours or so, until
the last reader utters “Finis.”
It’s been a long time since a whaling ship sailed out of
New Bedford, and even longer since the boomtown days
when Herman Melville wrote in “Moby-Dick”: “New Bedford
has of late been gradually monopolizing the business of
whaling.”
But to a surprising degree, the whaling past defines New
Bedford today. An important reason is Melville’s vivid,
enduring picture of it as it was in the 1840’s: a town
to which whale oil had provided both mansions — “nowhere
in all America will you find more patrician-like houses;
parks and gardens more opulent” — and seedy waterfront
places like the dilapidated Spouter-Inn, where even “the
swinging sign had a poverty-stricken sort of creak to
it” and Ishmael met the exotic harpooner, Queequeg.
“Moby-Dick” fever in New Bedford normally reaches its
annual high with the marathon reading — on the
anniversary of Melville’s own shipping out on a whaling
vessel on Jan. 3, 1841. The readers include Melville
descendants, local politicians, fishermen and scores of
other “Moby-Dick” enthusiasts, and the ritual has become
so popular that even in the dead of night, listeners
come and go.
This weekend, however, there is another big “Moby-Dick”
event — the 50th anniversary of the world premiere, in
New Bedford, of the movie “Moby Dick,” John Huston’s
Hollywood take on the story. Festivities will include
screenings of the film tomorrow at the Zeiterion, the
renovated vaudeville theater where it was shown in 1956.
Besides bringing Gregory Peck to town (he played Captain
Ahab), that premiere woke some in New Bedford to the
value of preserving what remained from the days when its
whale oil had lighted lamps on many continents. (Huston
had rejected it as a filming location; too little of the
old town was left.)
Whatever the day or year, a visit to New Bedford is more
fun with a little bit of “Moby-Dick” in mind, and the
city is happy to help. Quotations from the novel are
displayed around town: one on the Whaleman Statue on
Pleasant Street — it depicts a harpooner in the bow of a
boat — reads: “A dead whale or a stove boat” — in other
words, kill the whale or suffer the consequences of a
crushed boat.
Since 1996, 13 blocks in the oldest part of the city
have made up the New Bedford Whaling National Historical
Park, managed by the National Park Service. The park
extends from the wharves, where in the early 19th
century a whaling ship might unload 2,000 casks of whale
oil, uphill toward whaling-era houses and mansions that
were built by prosperous captains and merchants — houses
“harpooned and dragged up,” as Melville put it, “from
the bottom of the sea.” The one at 100 Madison Street,
now a bed-and-breakfast, was owned by Melville’s sister
in the 1860s. Another, the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and
Garden Museum, is open for touring. About 100 are within
a stroll.
Gone are the dingy Spouter-Inns. Gone, too, are the
brothels and gambling dens that caused the New Bedford
Port Society, in 1832, to open a bethel, or chapel, for
the “moral improvement” of seamen. The Seamen’s Bethel
remains, and is worth a visit; names of whaling men and
fishermen lost at sea since Melville’s day are on its
walls.
Also downtown are strikingly beautiful restored
Federalist and Greek Revival buildings, as well as
shops, galleries and restaurants, with the occasional
dusky bar. Whaling-minded visitors are often in town —
scrimshaw collectors, for example, or members of the
Descendants of the Whaling Masters or the Melville
Society.
The historical park visitor center — a good first stop
for getting oriented and picking up walking-tour
brochures — is in a former bank. The pillared Customs
House, constructed in 1836, is still in operation.
The public library on William Street holds, along with
strong collections of whaling, Quaker and abolitionist
history, a warrant for Melville’s arrest, issued after
he jumped ship in July 1842 in the Marquesas Islands. He
and another crewman fled its crotchety captain — an
inspiration for the character of Ahab.
The heart of the park is the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
Huge skeletons of a humpback and a blue whale hang from
the ceiling; descriptions of different whales include
detailed information on the sperm whale, Moby Dick’s
species. Because of the spermaceti in its head, which
made for a superior candle wax, and its blubber-derived
high-grade oil, the sperm whale was considered a trophy.
Lifelike displays put you into Ishmael’s shoes. You can
board the Lagoda, a half-scale model of a whaling ship.
Alongside is an authentic whaling boat, complete with
harpoons, tubs of line and a “clumsy cleat” for bracing
one’s knee, as Stubb, the second mate, did in
“Moby-Dick.”
Other exhibits convey what it was like to live in the
cramped forecastle below decks; to stare into a whale
jaw that, like Moby Dick’s, was crooked; or the
consequences of getting caught in a line and being
pulled under by a whale — a fate “which carries more of
true terror than any other aspect of this dangerous
affair.” On display are the few possessions left by one
such unfortunate fellow: his stenciling brush, shaving
bowl, inkwell and candleholder.
A collection of whaling-related oil paintings ranges
from Dutch oils of the 1600s, showing whales stripped of
blubber on shore, to 19th-century scenes by great
whaling portraitists of the day, including Alfred
Bierstadt, William Bradford, Clifford Ashley and Albert
Pinkham Ryder, all of whom grew up in the New Bedford
area.
At the museum’s research library, three blocks away, ask
a librarian to show you some of that collection: rare
histories, logbooks and journals; whalers’ charts; a
beautiful set of Melville’s first editions; and
illustrated books mentioned in “Moby-Dick,” including
Frederick Cuvier’s 1836 “Natural History of Whales”
(Ishmael dismissed one of Cuvier’s drawings as “not a
Sperm Whale, but a squash”).
Don’t leave town before going to the old wharves. The
whale ships are gone, but in their stead is a crowd of
fishing and scalloping vessels. New Bedford keeps its
connection to the sea.
If You Go
The New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
includes 13 blocks south of Route 6 and extending east
to the city’s wharves. Its visitor center (33 William
Street, 508-996-4095; www.nps.gov/nebe) is open daily 9
a.m. to 5 p.m.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum (18 Johnny Cake Hill,
508-997-0046; www.whalingmuseum.org), within the
historical park, is also open daily from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. Admission is $10. The museum’s research library
(791 Purchase Street) is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday through Friday and the first Saturday and Sunday
of each month.
The Seamen’s Bethel (15 Johnny Cake Hill, 508-992-3295)
is open on Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sundays,
1 to 4 p.m. through April, and more frequently in the
summer.
Special events this weekend include showings of the 1956
film “Moby Dick” at the Zeiterion theater (684 Purchase
Street; 508-994-2900, www.zeiterion.org) at 2 p.m. and 7
p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $5.50. A full events schedule
is at www.whalingmuseum.org.
The 2007 marathon reading of “Moby-Dick” at the Whaling
Museum begins at noon Jan. 3 and is free and open to the
public. At 6 p.m., the museum serves visitors grog and
chowder.
For an inexpensive restaurant meal in New Bedford, try
Spicy Lime Thai Cuisine (522 Pleasant Street,
508-992-3330). Café Balena (24 North Water Street,
508-990-0061) is pricier but enjoyable for its Italian
dishes and its operatic waiter. Both restaurants are
around the corner from the whaling museum. |
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