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New Bedford |
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New Bedford, city (1990 pop. 99,922), seat of Bristol co., SE Mass., at the mouth of the Acushnet River on Buzzard's Bay; settled 1640, set off from Dartmouth 1787, inc. as a city 1847. Formerly one of the world's greatest whaling ports, it then became a leading port for the fishing and scalloping industries, but dwindling fish populations and government regulations have hurt those industries. New Bedford handles transatlantic and intracoastal trade. Its manufactures include clothing, textiles, electrical and electronic equpment, rubber and metal products, medical supplies, and prepared foods. During the Revolution the harbor was a haven for American privateers, prompting the British to invade and burn the town in 1778. The whaling industry boomed after the Revolution, reaching a peak in the 1850s. The first cotton-textile mill there was built in 1846; the textile industry declined in the 1920s. The Seamen's Bethel, described by Herman Melville in Moby-Dick; the Bourne Whaling Museum; the Old Dartmouth Historical Society; Friends' Academy (1810); and the Swain School of Design are in New Bedford. The Free Public Library holds a large collection of material on whaling. A sizable Portuguese-speaking population is in the city. New Bedford a port and resort in SE Massachusetts, near Buzzards Bay: settled by Plymouth colonists in 1652; a leading whaling port (18th--19th centuries). Pop.: 94 112 (2003 est.) How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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| Besides though New Bedford has of late been gradually monopolizing the business of whaling, and though in this matter poor old Nantucket is now much behind her, yet Nantucket was her great original --the Tyre of this Carthage; --the place where the first dead American whale was stranded. But this was very far North, be it remembered, where beer agrees well with the constitution; upon the Equator, in our southern fishery, beer would be apt to make the harpooneer sleepy at the mast-head and boozy in his boat; and grievous loss might ensue to Nantucket and New Bedford. At any rate, he once more signed a ship's articles, and on January 1, 1841, sailed from New Bedford harbour in the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific Ocean and the sperm fishery. |
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