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George H., you wrote:
"But the "Morgan" was a particularly well-found specimen of American whalers,
which is one reason why she, and her log-books, have ended up in a museum."

Really, not at all. The Morgan is an example of a common ocean-going whaling 
vessel from mid-19th century New England. The preservation of the Charles W. 
Morgan was the result of a number of lucky accidents. It's quite 
extraordinary that a relatively ordinary commercial vessel has survived so 
long. Work boats are usually broken up. Vessels with unremarkable histories 
usually end up as barges or they sink at the pier and become the basis for 
landfill.

The Morgan was worked hard, but part of her survival can be attributed to the 
"lucky accident" that there always was work for her. There was no period when 
she was laid up or left to rot for years. Her rigging and planking were 
continually replaced. She was caulked and tarred and whatever else they did 
to keep her seaworthy because there was still money to be made from her 
voyages. Not much but enough to pay the bills.

The single biggest factor that saved the Morgan was the tremendous increase in 
the literary reputation of Melville's "Moby Dick" in the late 19th and 
through the late 20th centuries (not so much in recent decades... "Save the 
Whales" and all that). Melville remains an American literary icon, and even 
today, it's common to refer to the Morgan as "just like the whaling ship in 
'Moby Dick'" and generally it is. 

The Morgan was kept at an odd little museum in New Bedford in the late 1920s 
and through the 30s, but her benefactor died without leaving any funds, and 
so she was sold to the very small "Marine Historical Association" of Mystic, 
Connecticut which would soon become "Mystic Seaport". She was towed up the 
estuary in November of 1941. And that's another "lucky accident." If the 
plans to move her had been delayed just three or four weeks, the necessities 
of war-time probably would have left her to rot and die in New Bedford... 
--many people in New Bedford would have preferred that fate!

I mentioned above that the Morgan was continually maintained while she was a 
working vessel, rotten timbers replaced on a regular basis. That process 
continues today (as a preservation choice), and so the idea that the vessel 
is an artifact from 1841 is a bit of an illusion. Only the keel and some 
other large beams below the waterline, as well as a few frames, are that old. 
The rest has varying age with most everything having been replaced within the 
past 75 years. At this moment, the Morgan is out of the water and the 
shipyard's experts at Mystic Seaport are going over every plank and beam, 
gearing up for another significant restoration. I'm attaching a recent photo.

-FER

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