Seamen's Bethel


The Seamen's Bethel is a chapel in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, located at 15 Johnny Cake Hill.

History of building

Built by the New Bedford Port Society, it was completed on May 2, 1832. It is a contributing property to the New Bedford Historic District, a National Historic Landmark.
The Seamen's Bethel was specifically constructed for the many sailors who called New Bedford their home port, who considered it a matter of tradition that one visited the chapel before setting sail.
The bethel was immortalized in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick as the "Whaleman's Chapel", in a scene where a nautically themed sermon is given from a bow-shaped pulpit.
The pulpit was a Melville invention, but a replica of the one described in the book was added to the chapel in 1961 by Robert "bob" Baker, boat builder and naval architect from Westport, MA. Other 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, are noted on the walls of the bethel. Also noted is the pew that Melville sat in when he visited in 1840.

''Moby-Dick''

In 1851, Herman Melville published his famous tale of the white whale. In it he wrote:
From this point on, 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 Down to the Sea in Ships. In 1956, John Huston shot a scene from the movie adaptation of Moby-Dick, 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.

New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park

In 1996 the Seamen's Bethel, along with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the historic district and other icons of New Bedford whaling were collectively made into the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

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