INTERESTING! Panorama: Inside the Charles W. Morgan-Mystic Seaport

Quentin Snediker, director of the shipyard at Mystic Seaport, discusses some of the renovations that are being made to the Charles W. Morgan, a rare wooden whaling ship built in 1841 in New Bedford, Mass. The Morgan is the last surviving wooden whaleship from a time when more than 2,700 vessels of its kind existed. The ship was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1967.

At this stage, illustrated by a panoramic image taken on February 22, 2011 in the hold of the Morgan, shipbuilders are removing stanchions, the posts in the center of the hold that rest on the keel and support the ‘tween deck above. The height of the stanchions will be adjusted to compensate for the corrections made by the shipwrights to the keel that had bent out of shape over time.

The bright spot on the bottom of the hold is the portal door where the shipwrights climb in and out of the hold.

The ship was pulled on shore in November 2008 and renovation began in earnest about a year ago after the original state of the Morgan was documented and surveyed and a cover was built. Renovation is scheduled to be finished in 2014 and the ship will sail in the same year. LINK HERE