Lagoda

For the village in Poland, see Łagoda.
For the United States Navy ship, see USS Lagoda (SP-3250).

The Lagoda is a half-scale model of the whaling ship of the same name, located at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The Lagoda in the Bourne Building of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Original ship

The original Lagoda was a merchant ship built in 1826 in the Wanton Shipyard on the North River in what is now Norwell, Massachusetts. The shipyard was owned and managed by shipbuilders Seth and Samuel Foster. She was commissioned by Duxbury merchant Ezra Weston II.[1]

Originally intended to be named "Ladoga" after Lake Ladoga in Russia, the letters "d" and "g" were accidentally swapped and, due to superstition that correcting the name would bring bad luck, she remained the "Lagoda".[2] The frame of the ship was constructed of live oak.[2] She was a three-masted ship of 340 tons.[3]

Weston employed the Lagoda for about seven years as a merchant vessel in trade with northern European ports. On February 25, 1833, Weston sold the Lagoda to Boston merchant William Oliver.[4] In 1841, she was purchased by Jonathan Bourne of New Bedford and converted to a whaling ship. The most significant aspect of the refit was the addition of a trywork - an on-board hearth to convert blubber into whale oil.[2][5]

In 1860, the ship was converted to a barque - both to reduce the crew needed, and as it allowed the ship to sail closer to the wind.[2][5]

The Lagoda was one of the few ships to escape the Whaling Disaster of 1871: toward the end of the season, 40 ships whaling in the Arctic were surrounded by ice, which crushed 33 of them. The Lagoda narrowly escaped and, with the remaining ships, picked up some of the 1200 survivors.[2][5]

In total, the ship made almost $652,000 of profit for Bourne until he sold her in 1886. She sailed from the United States in 1889 and worked as a coal hulk, being used to fuel steamboats in Yokohama, Japan until she was sold again and eventually broken up in 1899.[2][5]

Replica

In 1915, Jonathan's daughter Emily donated the Bourne Building to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in memory of her father, and the Museum commissioned shipwrights to build the half-size model of the Lagoda in 1916.[6] with funds also provided by Emily. At 89 feet in length, it remains the largest whaling ship model in existence.[2][7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Browne, 75.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The Lagoda". New Bedford Whaling Museum. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  3. ↑ Browne, 130.
  4. ↑ Browne, p. 75.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Downing, Bob (2008-05-29). "Whaling era comes alive: New Bedford is a novel trip for Moby-Dick' fans". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  6. ↑ "New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park". 2006-11-05. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  7. ↑ Cuddy, Don. "Largest museum of its kind incorporates local, global history". SouthCoastToday.com. Retrieved 2008-10-21.

References

External links


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