New Bedford Whaling Bark MORNING STAR on Hudson’s Bay, Canada, 1865

oil, 36” x 48”

$50,000

Chris Blossom's stunning painting depicts the whaling bark MORNING STAR in May, 1864, dramatically set against a background of glistening pack ice. She had sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts on her final voyage into Hudson’s Bay, under the command of Captain Charles Allen. After spending the winter in the Bay, she set sail for her home port and arrived in October, 1865 with her holds packed with 1,170 barrels of whale oil as well as 17,900 pounds of whalebone. Thereafter she disappeared from record, it is assumed she was broken up as being no longer fit for service after twenty-two grueling years hunting whales.

The New Bedford whaler MORNING STAR was built at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1853 and rigged as a three-masted bark. On her first voyage to the whaling grounds of the Pacific, via Cape Horn she left New Bedford on the 10th of November, 1853 and returned home on the 18th of May, 1857, the first of many successful trips.