The Seamen's Bethel (or Seaman's Bethel) is a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

New Bedford New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, located at 15 Johnny Cake Hill. It most often served as a chapel that the many sailors visiting New Bedford would attend before they ventured off to sea.

History

Built by the ''New Bedford Port Society'', it was completed on May 2, 1832. It is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

to the New Bedford Historic District, a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

. The Seamen's Bethel was specifically constructed for the many sailors who called New Bedford their home port (mostly whalers), who considered it a matter of tradition that one visited the chapel before setting sail. Some changes were made when the structure was repaired after a fire in 1866. The names of New Bedford whalers killed, and later all area

fishermen A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

, are noted on the walls of the Bethel. James Henry Gooding, a war correspondent and member of the

54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantr ...

during the Civil War, married Ellen Louisa Allen in the Bethel in the summer of 1862. In 1996 the Seamen's Bethel, along with the

New Bedford Whaling Museum The New Bedford Whaling Museum is a museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States that focuses on the history, science, art, and culture of the international whaling industry, and the colonial region of Old Dartmouth (now the city of New B ...

(located across the street), the historic district and other icons of New Bedford whaling were collectively made into the

New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Partially owned by several entities and maintained by the National Park Service (NPS), the park commemorates the heritage of ...

''Moby-Dick''

In 1851,

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...

published ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...

'', his famous tale of the white whale. The Bethel was immortalized in the book as the "Whaleman's Chapel". Melville wrote: In the novel, a nautically-themed

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present context ...

is given from a

bow BOW as an acronym may refer to: * Bag of waters, amniotic sac * Bartow Municipal Airport (IATA:BOW), a public use airport near Bartow, Florida, United States * Basic operating weight of an aircraft * BOW counties, made of Brown, Outagamie, and Winn ...

-shaped

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

by a chaplain named

Father Mapple Father Mapple is a fictional character in Herman Melville's novel ''Moby-Dick'' (1851). A former whaler, he has become a preacher in the New Bedford Whaleman's Chapel. Ishmael, the narrator of the novel, hears Mapple's sermon on the subject of Jon ...

. The character is generally believed to be inspired by Father

Edward Thompson Taylor Edward Thompson Taylor (December 25, 1793–April 6, 1871) was an American Methodist minister. He joined the New England Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819 and was an itinerant preacher in southeastern New England for ...

, who Melville likely heard preaching in Boston. However, he was likely also inspired to create the character after hearing Enoch Mudge preaching at the Seamen's Bethel on December 27, 1840, while in New Bedford awaiting his own departure on a whaling vessel.Knickerbocker, Wendy. ''Bard of the Bethel: The Life and Times of Boston's Father Taylor, 1793-1871''. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014: 293. The pulpit shaped like the bow of a ship in the novel was a Melville invention, but a replica of the one described in the book was added to the chapel in 1961 by Robert Baker, boat builder and naval architect from Westport, MA. Also noted is the

pew A pew () is a long bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a synagogue, church, funeral home or sometimes a courtroom. Occasionally, they are also found in live performance venues (such as the Ryman ...

that Melville sat in when he visited in 1840. After the book's publication, the Seamen's Bethel came to be widely seen as a symbol of the whalers, and later as a symbol of their history.

In film

Shots of Seamen's Bethel appear in the 1922 film '' Down to the Sea in Ships''. In 1956,

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

shot a scene from the movie adaptation of ''Moby-Dick'' (with

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

and

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

), in front of the real Seamen's Bethel, but interior shots in the movie were not shot on-location. This revitalized tourism to the area.

Images

Image:Exterior_seamensbethelnewbedford2006.jpg, exterior Image:Interior_seamensbethelnewbedford2006.jpg, interior, with the bow-shaped pulpit in front Image:Epitaph1_seamensbethelnewbedford2006.jpg,

Cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

Image:Epitaph2_seamensbethelnewbedford2006.jpg,

File: Seaman's Bethel, New Bedford, MA, 1968.jpg, Plaques at the doorway, as seen in 1968 File: Seamen's Bethel.jpg, Seamen's Bethel the Historic Whaling Chapel in New Bedford, MA

References

External links

New Bedford Port Society
{{New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Churches completed in 1832 Churches in New Bedford, Massachusetts Chapels in the United States Moby-Dick Whaling in the United States New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park 1832 establishments in Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts History of Bristol County, Massachusetts Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in New Bedford, Massachusetts