For approximately 150 years, the Mattapoisett section of Rochester had eight or nine boatyards. With this many yards, we would assume that vessels were always built near the ocean, but some came to life in some strange places. One sloop was built in a yard near a home and launched into a creek at Godspeed’s Island. Another schooner was built near Cushing Cemetery and had to be taken to the shore to be launched by Barstow’s Wharf. During this time of active building, it is estimated that between 400-500 vessels were built. At least 275 workmen were employed.
This brings us to the last ship built in 1878, the Wanderer. The Wanderer was 116 ft. in length and weighed in at 300 ton with a 27 ft. beam length, and it drew 15 ft. below sea level. It was the last whaling vessel to sail out of New Bedford Harbor.
The Wanderer was a veteran ship that like most whalers was a 3 masted bark with a crew of about 30 men, many from towns such as Rochester. Like all whalers, it was a “factory ship” that processed oil on sight from captured whales. The Wanderer had a “case” or reservoir in the hold for the retrieved oil and large storage casks.
In her early days, the ship spent summers off the coast of Africa where there were plenty of whales: right sperm and humpback. At various intervals, they would put into a port. about every six months. They put into St. Helena where they would meet the Lottie Beard, a supply ship, from New Bedford, and they would get mail and packages from home. Winter whaling sometimes took place in the lower latitudes near Cape Horn. The weather there was most often cold, foggy and stormy and whales were scarce.
The type of whale captured made a difference in the success of a voyage. Humpback whales were swift movers and took more than one boat on a “Nantucket sleigh ride.” They would also sink when they died, and sailors would have to tie them off on their boats and wait for the next day when they would float to the surface. The oil of the humpback was worth half of the oil from a sperm whale.
The Wanderer was known as a lucky ship with few serious accidents or fatalities. She was also a successful vessel. In her first four- year voyage, she returned home with 2,600 barrels of oil. In 1917, she brought in 6,200 barrels, possibly a record in whaling history.
A small newspaper clipping in our files from The Star of November 27, 1909, reports that the whaling bark, Wanderer, was brought to Fairhaven to be hauled out on the city railway. “She had been started when a link in the big chain which hauls the carriage parted.” The Wanderer slid into the river and was towed back to New Bedford.
The Wanderer plied the ocean from June 4, 1878 until Aug. 26, 1924, when she suffered an untimely fate. Readying for her final voyage, she was moored off Cuttyhunk when a hurricane dashed her on the rocks and the “wind and sea tore her apart”.
By Connie Eshbach