The History of Whaleboat Races in New Bedford Harbor

Newspaper reports from 1857 record the results of the New Bedford Independence Day Whaleboat Races in the harbor. They were part of the celebration for Independence Day. The race started at Pope’s Island, went south, around Palmers Island and back to the start, a distance of about 2 ¾ miles. That year the race was won by a whaleboat with the name of Skylark. The winning time was 25 minutes and 5 seconds. In 1859, Independence Day was again celebrated by holding whaleboat races. The winner that year was a whaleboat called the Flying Fish.

Whaleboat races continued in the harbor until about the turn of the century. They were revived in the mid 1980s. However, rather than using whaleboats (there were none around except those on display in the Whaling Museum), rowers used lifesaving boats borrowed from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. In 1997 a group of people interested in the races formed "Whaleboats for the Whaling City" under the auspices of the Waterfront Historic Area League (WHALE). This group raised over $60,000 to build the three whaleboats that are now used in the Independence Day Whaleboat Race during SummerFest.

Whaling City Rowing, a nonprofit educational organization, was formed in 1998 and WHALE donated the whaleboats to WCR in 1999. In honor of the boats that won the Independence Day Whaleboat Races in 1857 and 1859, WCR named two of the whaleboats the Skylark and the Flying Fish. The third boat is named the Herman Melville, to honor the person most identified with New Bedford's maritime heritage.

WCR has organized the Independence Day Whaleboat Races at SummerFest since 1999. For more details contact Whaling City Rowing at 508-517-1251 or by email at info@whalingcityrowing.org.