‘No place in the world like Westport Point’

[Westport Point looking north from the collection of the WHS – Click for larger image.] Westport Point, offered one of the most protected harbors in the region and by 1855 it was home port to over 18 whaling vessels. It had gradually developed as a self-sufficient provisioning center for whaling voyages. Blacksmiths, coopers, ship carpenters, […]

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The Union – first and nearly last

[Crew list for 1805 whaling voyage courtesy of NBWM] The first officially recorded whaling voyage from Westport Point is that of the sloop Union in 1775, Thomas Case master. This document lists the crew of the Union in 1805 making a 6 month voyage to the North Atlantic, Jonathan Mayhew master. One of the last […]

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A Westport Woman goes Whaling

Abbie Maria Dexter Hicks went whaling in 1873. We know this because she kept a diary from June 23, 1873 to September 13, 1874 in a tiny book that measures only 5” by 3” in the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Her husband was Captain Edward E. Hicks. Two months after their marriage […]

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