New Bedford, Massachusetts, is New England's best place to dive into whaling history. "The City that Lit the World" with its whale oil bounty and inspired Herman Melville's masterpiece, Moby-Dick, was home base for 500 whaling ships during its 19th-century heyday.
Home to the nation's largest institution devoted to the whaling industry, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and the 13-block New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, established in 1996 to preserve the city's architectural, cultural and historical legacy, New Bedford is a fascinating destination not only for its past but for its 20th-century resurgence as America's most profitable commercial fishing port.
These photos from my 2007 New Bedford visit will introduce you to the Whaling City's sights and to the risky, yet immensely rewarding, big game hunt that made this deep port city one of America's wealthiest and most diverse and cosmopolitan cities by the 1850s.
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