Historical Paintings of Woods Hole and Falmouth by F. L. Gifford
Launching of the “Commodore Morris” and the “Commodore Morris” at Sea
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This whaler was built and launched in Woods Hole in 1841 from the Bar Neck Wharf, the present site of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She was owned by Oliver Swift. Her first captain was Charles Downs, who was succeeded by Silas Jones, Lewis Lawrence and others... At her launching she bore the gun ports so often painted on vessels of her period to discourage buccaneers in far-off seas.
The text above is from Historical Paintings of Woods Hole, by Franklin Lewis Gifford (Woods Hole Public Library, 1962).