The CHARLES W. MORGAN was built at New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1841 by the Hillman Brothers Shipyard. She was named after the Quaker businessman, Charles Waln Morgan, for whom the ship was built. However, most of her eighty-year whaling career was spent under the employ of J.& W.R. Wing & Co. (1863-1913), a career which encompassed thirty-seven voyages, and resulted in 54,483 barrels of oil and 152,934 pounds of whalebone being taken.

Built originally as a ship, the MORGAN was re-rigged as a bark in 1867. She returned from her final voyage in 1921 and soon thereafter was purchased and exhibited by Colonel E.H.R. Green at his estate in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In November of 1941 the Marine Historical Association (Mystic Seaport) acquired the vessel and brought her to Mystic, Connecticut, where she has remained a featured museum exhibit, the last surviving example of the 19th century American whaling fleet.