New Bedford Whaling Museum US Map & Phone & Address
18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford; (508) 997-0046
New Bedford is another destination with more to offer than outlet shopping. The town has a colorful history as a center for whaling, well-illus-trated at this New Bedford Whaling Museum. Climb aboard the Lagoda, an 89-foot, half-scale model of an actual whaling vessel; check out harpoons, scrimshaw, captain’s logbooks, and a real humpback whale skeleton. Admission is $4.50 for adults, $3.50 for seniors, and $3 for ages six to fourteen. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 P.M. seven days a week, with hours extended to 8 P.M. on Thursdays.
Across the street, check out the Seaman’s Bethel. Immortalized in the novel Moby Dick, this chapel houses the prow-shaped pulpit from which Melville’s character Father Mapple gives his famous sermon. Thirty marble cenotaphs engraved with the names of sailors lost at sea span the whole of New Bedford’s marine history, from whalers of the 1800s to commercial fishermen of the 1990s. Open from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Mondays through Saturdays, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
