Visiting the New Bedford Whaling Museum while reading Moby-Dick
This semester I am taking “The Last Great Hunt: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, and American Culture” with Melville expert Dr. John Rocco. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is only about 30 minutes from where I grew up, and I knew I wanted to visit before the course ended. Luckily I was able to squeeze in a trip to the museum after traveling to Massachusetts for a family birthday celebration.
Some of Moby-Dick’s most memorable scenes occur in New Bedford: Ishmael witnesses “actual cannibals chatting at street corners,” meets his bosom friend Queequeg at the Spouter-Inn, and listens to the powerful oratory of Father Mapple in the Seamen’s Bethel. One could argue that Melville’s dark humor shines brightest in these early chapters, which are full of comedic but ominous portents. Driving up to the museum on a cold, gray day, I was struck by the quaintness of the cobble stone streets and the abundance of appealing looking taverns.
“If I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilised town, that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of New Bedford…” — Herman Melville, Chapter 6 of Moby-Dick, “The Street.”
Famously, Melville himself shipped out from New Bedford on his first whaling voyage in January 1841, on the whaler Acushnet. You can find Melville on the crew list through the great new resource Whaling History, a collaboration between the Mystic Seaport and New Bedford Whaling Museum. But onward to the museum itself.
Upon entry visitors are greeted by three massive skeletons, comprised of a juvenile Blue whale named KOBO (short for King of the Blue Ocean), a 37-foot male humpback named Quasimodo, and a 49-foot female North Atlantic right whale named Reyna, as well as her calf (she was ten months pregnant when she was accidentally struck and killed). As the museum explains it, the skeletons that are on display come from animals that died accidentally or by undetermined circumstances.
Moby-Dick is of course known for its expository chapters on whales and whaling. These chapters are part of what make the novel so experimental, though many readers find them difficult to get through.
“One consequent of Melville’s years at sea was a certain cosmopolitan amusement at how human beings organize themselves into ranks, and at how those doing the organizing always reserve a place for themselves at the top… These cetological chapters retard the pace of the narrative… but it is here that Melville makes his case, tongue in cheek, against all forms of classification-including the racial form.” — Andrew Delbanco in Melville: His World and Work, page 157.
After exiting the atrium, the first object I encountered was a first edition copy of Moby-Dick. Just another reminder that Melville will always be intertwined with whaling history, and will continue to serve as a gateway to maritime culture for generations to come.
The exhibition “From Pursuit to Preservation: The History of Human Interaction with Whales” featured a huge sperm whale skeleton. Around the edges of the space were many related objects, including a whale boat, harpoons, lances, navigation tools, log books, and photographs of whalers.
One thing I learned from the exhibition is that the whaling industry had more staying power than I thought. The products below were derived from the modern whale fishery of the 20th century.
Next up was the “Lagoda,” a half-scale model of a whaling bark built in 1916, and the largest ship model in existence. Visitors can climb aboard and explore the 89-foot model, providing a unique hands-on experience.
As I made my way across the bark, I was excited to find the tryworks, the furnace with kettle pots used to render blubber. As Melville noted in Moby-Dick, “Besides her hoisted boats, an American whaler is outwardly distinguished by her try-works.”
Melville’s description of the tryworks in chapter 96 are not to be forgotten:
“The burning ship drove on, as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed…As the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night — then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire and a burning corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniacal commander’s soul.”
Moving on, the exhibitions emphasized the global nature of the whaling industry, and the resulting connections forged between far-flung communities. In New Bedford, Azorean and Cape Verdean people thrived and shaped the development of the city.
In Moby-Dick Melville also emphasized the ability of men at sea to forge connections across differences, as exemplified by Ishmael and Queequeg’s relationship (a “cozy, loving pair”).
All in all, the museum really brought whaling history to life and served as the perfect complement to reading Moby-Dick— and I only scratched the surface with this visit. Next time I’ll be sure to grab a beer at the Moby Dick Brewing Company, right across the street.
Stay tuned for post number two on my trip to the adjacent Mariners’ Home, which currently has an exhibition on Moby-Dick and the Silver Screen!
