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The Half-scale Whaleship Model Lagoda

The largest ship model in the world, the Lagoda symbolizes the zenith of the American whaling industry. Built in 1916 by New Bedford shipwrights, the Lagoda is the New Bedford Whaling Museum's most important and popular educational tool. Millions of children and adults have climbed her gangway to explore what life was like aboard ship for a 19th-century whaleman. The Lagoda is 89 feet long from flying jibboom to the end of the spanker boom. Her length from figurehead to stern is 59 feet. Her mainmast is 50 feet tall. She carries, when fully rigged, a suit of 15 sails.

The Lagoda, and the building that houses her, were the gift of Emily Bourne, oldest daughter of whaling merchant Jonathan Bourne and his wife, Emily Summers. Miss Bourne financed the project in memory of her father, and to help preserve the history of New Bedford's whaling industry and the people who contributed to its success. Jona

than Bourne was the agent for 24 whaling ships in 19th-century New Bedford. Those ships made many voyages, profiting over the decades to the tune of $7,986,103. The Lagoda, which Bourne purchased in 1841 and converted to a whaling bark, was his favorite vessel, and he owned her until 1886. On one voyage of nearly four years (46 months), she returned with a cargo valued at $200,755-equivalent to about $5.5 million today.

Now in her tenth decade, the Lagoda needs extensive restoration of her deck, rigging, paint, sails, and spars, so she can enter her second century in the same sturdy condition that she began her first. The Lagoda is a time capsule, built at a time when sailing whaleships were still in use by shipwrights and riggers who had almost certainly built and repaired the ships of New Bedford's whaling fleet. This model is extremely valuable not only as the world's largest ship model and a resource for teaching the history of whaling and whalemen, but as a research tool in learning exactly how these ships were built and rigged. It is, therefore, essential to maintain it as authentically as possible.

The Restoration Project

The restoration project is underway right now at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Working from staging up to three stories high, each of hundreds of rigging parts and approximately three miles of cordage will be cleaned, repaired, repainted, or coated  ("slushed") by the restoration crew. Worn or rotted rigging is being replaced with materials as close to the original as can be found today. Fifteen new sails are to be bent on with proper running rigging and seizings in place. Bulwarks, features and structures on the weather deck and the hull all need repair and repainting. The exhibits below deck and in the deckhouse, visible to visitors through Plexiglas barriers, need to be cleaned and repaired, and the lighting upgraded. Approximately 3,000 linear feet of badly worn sheathing on the weather deck has been replaced and refastened with authentic nails. All of the work being done now, as in 1916, is carried out by experienced shipwrights, riggers, and sailors.

Working on the restoration are Capt. Fred Sterner, rigger Marty Casey, Capt. Willi Bank, Historian Erik Ronberg, Jonathan Howard, Dick Settele and shipwright Leon Poindexter.

Visitors to the museum are still able to go aboard the Lagoda while work is progressing. Some sections may be temporarily roped off while specific projects are underway. Visitors are encouraged to ask questions of the restoration team, who will do their best to oblige with answers as they continue their tasks.

In the course of their recent work on the foremast rigging, Capt. Sterner and Mr. Casey found a lift eye splice on the fore topgallant that neither, in their combined 100 years or so of experience, had come across before. Made of four-strand hemp, the splice consisted of one tuck; then half the strands had been unlaid and held aside, while two more tucks were taken. With the remaining laid strands, a single tapered tuck was then trimmed. The unlaid strands were then run down to fill the voids in the splice, and served back up over the whole splice. Mr. Casey called this a "poor man's worm and parcel," and said they would be calling this the "Lagoda splice" pending further research and answers to queries they had sent out to colleagues.

The museum is actively seeking funding to complete the restoration. Donations to the Lagoda restoration fund may be made by contacting Alison Meyer in the Whaling Museum's Development Department. (telephone: 508-997-0046, ext. 115; email: ameyer@whalingmuseum.org)