Keeping New Bedford's whaling past alive. Descendants of Whaling Masters celebrate 50 years

Portuguese Captain John T. Gonsalves commanded the legendary whaling ship the Charles W. Morgan on its last whaling voyage out of New Bedford in 1920, but an encounter with a German U-boat during World War I while out whaling could have ended his life.

The tradition of passing down oral histories in the Gonsalves family continues with his grandson, Dan Rodrigues, one of the senior members of the Descendants of Whaling Masters (DWM) celebrating 50 years over four days starting Sept. 12.

A few years ago, Rodriques asked DWM Vice President Rich Taber to put on a program with Gonsalves as the featured speaker, and with Taber’s help, he told this tale that occurred toward the end of World War I and toward the end of whaling in New Bedford.

“His grandfather was out whaling during World War I in the Atlantic and was stopped by a German U-boat, and the initial sense of it was they were going to sink his whaleship,” Taber said, retelling the story.

“The U-boat captain ordered all of the men off the whaleship, and they rowed out to the U-boat thinking the Germans were going to sink the vessel, but somehow they got into direct communication with the captain of the U-boat,” he said. “Dan’s grandfather was speaking in English with a Portuguese accent and was questioned by the U-boat captain why they were out there and what they were doing, and he pleaded his case that they were fishermen out to make a living.”

When asked about his accent, he explained to the captain that he is of Portuguese ancestry.

“The captain said, well, I have high regard for the navigation skills of Portuguese mariners, and so he agreed to let them go back to the boat and they weren’t going to sink it,” he said.

Taber said he did some research and was able to authenticate the story by reading through Naval archives from the Department of the Navy that documented all known encounters American vessels had with German U-boats compiled by the Navy after WWI.

“Sure enough, in that archive, was this tale of his grandfather’s and I found a picture of the actual U-boat that was the one that had approached him,” he said. “Later in that day, that U-boat had sunk this freighter, and it made big news in the newspapers. The very same U-boat that day did go off on another vessel that was transporting goods and sank the vessel.”

Three whaling captains in one family

Descendant Susan Grace can lay claim to having three Mandlys in her family who were whaling captains while also representing the Descendants. They were brothers Henry Mandly Sr., Antone Manley and Henry Mandly Jr. Henry Sr. is her great-great grandfather on her father’s side of the family.

She said the story goes that the Mandlys were the only whaling family to have all three captains out whaling on separate whaling ships at the same time. Many Mandly family members were left behind waiting for their captains to come home from sea.

“I remember my great aunt Ethel - her father was Antone Mandly - telling me that her mother had just become pregnant with her when her father went out whaling,” she said. “He returned four years later. She said when he came into the house, she ran away and cried, “Who is that strange man in our house!”

While Antone was away those four years, his wife Laura had a new home built down the street from where they had previously lived. During this four-year absence, she also set up a successful seamstress business on the third floor of the new house.

“When he returned, he had to be directed to his new home down the street," she said. “I always thought this was especially self-reliant and entrepreneurial of her!”

Antone Mandly was the captain of the last whaling vessel to have a whaling trip and was the vessel’s master and principal owner. The 1925 voyage of the John R. Manta was the last American whaling voyage under sail and marked the end of the whaling era. It returned leaky with a half empty hold, Grace recalls being told.

Revisiting the Charles W. Morgan homecoming

For Cathy Potter, her most memorable experiences in recent years have included the Homecoming to New Bedford in 2014 of the Charles W. Morgan after it was restored in Mystic, Connecticut and could go back out to sea.

“DWM was honored to have Captain Richard “Kip” Files, the master of the Morgan for that 38 ^th voyage, as our guest speaker at our 40 ^th annual meeting,” she said. “Bruce Demoranville was our president that year. Both he and long-time DWM board member Daniel M. Rodrigues participated in the events of the Morgan homecoming, both in Mystic and New Bedford.”

Rodrigues was honored for his many years of service to the Descendants organization in 2019.

A look back in the Whale Watch newsletter

In the latest DWM newsletter, editor Christine Davis writes that the creation of the DWM has been credited to Dorothy Leavitt Howland “who saw the importance of such a group to preserve this singular era in America’s maritime history,” according to the group’s look back at the highlights of a 50-year voyage.

The DWM was officially launched Oct. 23, 1974. Its first elected officers were Dorothy’s niece, Ellen D. Howland, granddaughter of Captain George Lyman Howland, who was installed as the first chairman, and it met three times a year. Initially, the group had 152 members.

When funding was needed to keep the organization going, Descendant Genevieve M. Darden began the daunting task of preparing a book for publication by compiling and editing numerous family letters donated by our members.

In June 1980, her 96-page hardcover book “My Dear Husband: Being a Collection of Heretofore Unpublished Letters of the Whaling Era” was released, with over half of the books being sold within the first year.

For their second challenge, they commissioned a Pairpoint cup plate, designed by member Nathalie Tallman Blaha and titled “There Go Flukes.” In October 1982, the plate was released, and for 10 years the little cup plates were a source of revenue.

In the spring of 1979, DWM agreed to assist the New Bedford Whaling Museum in restoring their portrait of whaling Captain Isaac Chase Howland. As hoped, proceeds from “My Dear Husband” allowed them to help with two more portraits.

Since that time, they have continued to help fund the Museum’s portrait conservation efforts, with 12 whaling portraits having been fully restored.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Keeping New Bedford's whaling past alive. Descendants of Whaling Masters celebrate 50 years