The ship on the US commemorative stamp pictured above is the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling vessel that was built in 1841 and sailed the global ocean for 80 years hunting giant cetaceans. The ship is the world’s oldest surviving commercial vessel and had been under restoration for 6 years until it was re-launched in 2013. Only the USS Constitution, the 1797 Navy frigate afloat at Pier 1 in Charlestown, is older.
This past weekend, the Charles W. Morgan sailed around Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off of Massachusetts — not as a commercial interest to plunder the ocean, but as a beacon of ocean conservation. The ship held a lively crew of historians, scientists, authors and artists who were aboard to draw attention to the sanctuary’s efforts to study, understand and protect endangered whales.…