Events Calendar

Gallery X/SSV Ernestina-Morrissey Video & History Event May 27, 2025

NEW BEDFORD, MA – Gallery X presents a free evening of videos and commentary highlighting the diverse lives, history, resilience, and continued value of SSV Ernestina-Morrissey on May 27 from 7:00 to 8:30PM.

The show will include classic newsreels and film of Captain Robert Bartlett’s Arctic voyages from 1927 to 1945 on the schooner, then known as Effie M. Morrissey, to Iceland, Baffin Bay, Greenland, and Alaska; celebrations of its life as a trans-Atlantic and inter-island packet in Cabo Verde, successful efforts to return the ship as a gift from Cabo Verde in 1982 to become the Official Vessel of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts homeported in New Bedford; its use as an education venue and historic tall ship; extensive rebuilding and return to New Bedford as SSV Ernestina-Morrissey in the fleet of Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Short comments will be offered by people long involved with the schooner, its restoration, and use.

The presentation is part of Ship Shape II, a Gallery X organized exhibition of maritime-themed art featuring works using discarded material connected with SSV Ernestina-Morrissey facilitated by the Academy and the Ernestina-Morrissey’s crew.

Gallery X, located at 169 William St. in New Bedford, traces its own history to participation of some of its founders with a festival and regatta organized by the Schooner’s crew and staff in 1990. Ship Shape II will be on view at Gallery X from Wednesday, May 14, until Saturday, June 7, with an opening reception on Saturday, May 17. Check the Gallery X Facebook page or entertainment calendars for additional events during the exhibit.

This program is supported in part by the Wicked Cool Places grant funded by the City of New Bedford through its Arts, Culture & Tourism Fund, and is facilitated by New Bedford Creative at the NBEDC. Additional support received from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, through its Festivals & Projects Program.