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Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil

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201 points geox | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 23:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.32s | source
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ffujdefvjg ◴[19 Oct 24 16:56 UTC] No.41888931[source]▶
NBWM is absolutely fantastic. They have Clifford Ashley's (wrote Ashley Book of Knots) rope and knot collection, and some of his paintings too (he lived on the other side of the harbour). They also have the world's largest scrimshaw collection, and the Lagoda, the world's largest model wooden ship (1:2 scale IIRC), which you can walk around on and check out the ropework. Seamen's Bethel from Moby Dick is literally a block away. Easily the coolest museum I've been to.

Interesting bit of trivia, New Bedford used to be the richest city in the planet because of the whaling industry.

replies(2): >>41891247 #>>41896619 #
1. chx ◴[19 Oct 24 22:23 UTC] No.41891247[source]▶
The typical claim made is "it was the wealthiest city per capita in North America in the first half of the 19th century" but on p23 https://npshistory.com/publications/nebe/clr.pdf claims it was the second in the state. New Orleans is claimed to be the nation's wealthiest in 1830s-1840s.