I've written a lot about New Bedford, but I don't think that I've included web addresses. So here goes:
The New Bedford Whaling Museum .. Without a doubt, the best museum in the world dealing with the whaling industry, the famous City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the current preservation of cetaceans. Visit this site and take all of the tours and I am sure that you will want to visit New Bedford and the Museum on your next vacation.
Most people think about New Bedford (if they think about it at all) as the home of the famous "Big Dan" case. But that is only one part of New Bedford's history.
01. It was the richest city in the United States for many years.
02. It was where the Lizzie Borden trial was held.
03. It is the biggest fishing port on the East Coast and probably in the whole U.S.
04. Herman Melville worked there and was inspired to write Moby Dick there.
05. The famous painter Albert Pinkham Ryder lived there.
06. Frederick Douglass took the "Underground Railroad" to New Bedford and worked in the whaling industry there.
07. Major Roberts wrote his parliamentary procedures manual (Robert's Rules of Order) while stationed in N.B.
08. The richest woman in the world lived there and made her money from the whaling industry. Hettie Green, the so-called "Witch of Wall Street".
09. Joe Vaughan grew up there.
10. For many years it was the Textile capitol of the U.S., until cheap labor lured the industry to the southern part of the country.
11. etc etc etc
Visit the website for the museum and browse the features. You will like it.
http://www.whalingmuseum.org
If you do have an interest in the whaling industry, you might also like to visit
The Nantucket Massachusetts Whaling Museum ..
While in no way as large or inclusive as the New Bedford museum, it is very interesting to visit. Some people think that the whaling industry was centered in Nantucket.. not so. New Bedford deserves that honor. But.. it is a very interesting place to visit, and its also a wonderful place to live if your income tops one million dollars a year.
http://www.nha.org/sites/index.html
Now, if you have gotten this far, I'm sure you will love this site.. this is where you can read the whole novel Moby Dick online.
http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/
Finally, here is the address of the blog for a wonderful place in Melbourne, Australia.
http://whitewhaletheatre.wordpress.com
I may as well sign this edition of my blog with one of my nom de plumes that seems appropriate.
AHAB
5 comments:
Hey, I knew you came from NB, but what's the "Big Dan" case?
New Bedford always had "Taverns", where women were not allowed. One of these was in the North End of NB and was called "Big Dan's". At Big Dan's, newly arrived male Portuguese immigrants to N.B. spent a lot of time playing pool and drinking Madiera Wine.
At some point, a young lady showed up at the bar and the Portuguese guys thought that she must be a whore and violated her.
I can't remember if the girl was killed, but the police did intervene and arrested the men, most of whom did not speak English.
After years of trials, the young men were acquited. At the time, this was known as the Big Dan Case and was reported across the US to show that NB men were savages.
My relationship to the story... when I drove a cab in NB, One of my regular customers was "Fish Mary" who was the only female "lumper" in the fisherman''s union. Sometimes I drove her daughter and her granddaughter in my cab... the girl from Big Dan's was the granddaughter.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the kind words about our blog and our theatre company.
It's a long way to Melbourne from where you're at!
All the best,
David
Mary's granddaughter was not the girl from Big Dan's, she was miles away from New Bedford at that time. This post has caused much confusion in her family and I'd appreciate this false information be removed.
Thank you
Apparently, I was wrong about Mary's granddaughter being involved with the Big Dan case. This was told to me by what I thought was a reliable source, but I'm told by other sources that I was wrong about this, so I would like to apologize. I'm sorry for any problems this may have caused. Joe Vaughan
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