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

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, located at 15 Johnny Cake Hill.

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 distri ...

to the New Bedford Historic District, a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. 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 fisher or fisherman 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. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...

, 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 was 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 Infantry ...

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 "Old Dartmouth" region (now the city of New Bedford and ...

(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 (NBWNHP) is a United States National Historical Park in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). The park commemorates the heritage of the world's preeminent ...

''Moby-Dick''

In 1851,

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

published ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler, whaling ship ''Pequod (Moby- ...

'', 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 contexts. El ...

is given from a bow-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, access ...

by a chaplain named Father Mapple. 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 Enoch Mudge (1776–1850) was the first native New Englander to be ordained as a Methodism, Methodist minister. Biography Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, Lynn, Mass., he was converted under Jesse Lee (Methodist), Jesse Lee, the pioneer of Histor ...

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 (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

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, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

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 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

and

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

), 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 tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

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 New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park 1832 establishments in the United States 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