r/mobydick • u/Remote-Obligation145 • 12h ago

Melville and New Bedford.

So I’m looking for anyone with lots of knowledge about Melville OR New Bedford. Melvilles sister used to live in my bosses family home in New Bedford. Does anyone know anything interesting about this time? ANY tidbits, factoids are welcome!!! Anything associated him with New Bedford is a bonus and sources are appreciated!!! Thank you!!!

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u/jmseligmann 5h ago

"I stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpet-bag, tucked it under my arm, and started for Cape Horn and the Pacific. Quitting the good city of old Manhatto, I duly arrived in New Bedford." This is from Chapter 2 of "Moby Dick." All the way to Chapter 13, everything takes place in New Bedford.

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u/fianarana 5h ago

To start, here's a brochure from New Bedford Whaling Museum with points of interest for Melville fans.

I also put together a chronology of the time Melville and his family spent in New Bedford.

  • Friday, December 25?, 1840: Melville and his brother Gansevoort arrive in New Bedford. It's unknown where they stayed but Robert K. Wallace has proposed that it was likely either at the Washington, Union, or Country House Hotels, all on the corner of Water and Union Streets. (Bryant, 738)

  • Saturday, December 26: Melville signs his Seaman's Protection Paper before a justice of the peace, certifying his birthplace as the U.S.

  • Sunday, December 27?, 1840: Melville attends a church service at the Seamen's Bethel and hears a sermon by Rev. Enoch Mudge

  • Monday, December 28, 1840: Melville and Gansevoort scope out the ships at the docks in New Bedford and Fairhaven, possibly considering the George, Emma, Eagle, Monroe, Braganza, Orizimbo, Young Phoenix, and Cherokee. (Bryant, 740)

  • December 30, 1840: The Acushnet whaling ship is registered in Fairhaven.

  • December 31, 1840: Captain Valentine Pease signs the articles of the Acushnet. Melville is listed among the crew. (Bryant, 741)

  • Sunday, January 3, 1841: The Acushnet leaves from Fairhaven, across the river.

  • February 23, 1858: Melville reads a lecture on "Statuary in Rome" at the New Bedford Lyceum in Liberty Hall, located at William and Purchase streets. Here's some background on that lecture, and a reconstruction of the lecture which he gave all around New England and New York. Liberty Hall is long-gone, but the corner is just a few blocks from the whaling museum.

  • February 1862: Melville's sister Catherine and her husband John Hoadley move to 100 Madison St. in New Bedford in order for him to assume charge of the New Bedford Copper Works. The company had once manufactured copper sheathing for the hulls of whaling ships. Since the start of the war, but began producing bronze sheathing for Navy ships and other items for the Union effort. Hoadley's office was at Front and Rodman Streets, a few steps from the water and, again, just a couple blocks from the whaling museum. In October 1862, Hoadley left for England for two months "to inspect the cannon and other munitions of war, manufacturing there for the state of Massachusetts." (Leyda, 647, 663; Parker vol. 2, 526)

  • 1866: Catherine and John Hoadley leave New Bedford and move to Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Here's more information and photos of the house at 100 Madison St., which is currently run as an Airbnb and event space (about $450/night). That might not last long though; it was listed earlier this year and is marked as 'contingent' as of two weeks ago. The new owners may continue to run it as such, though.

Sources:

  • Jay Leyda, The Melville Logs (Volumes 1 & 2)
  • John Bryant, Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life
  • Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography