The City of New Bedford will unveil its new Herman Melville statue, “Melville and Jonah’s Journey,” outside Seamen’s Bethel on Friday, Aug. 14, at 11 a.m.
The 7½-foot bronze sculpture, created by artist and philosopher Karen Rocknak, is inspired by Father Mapple’s famous sermon about Jonah and the whale in Chapter 9 of Moby-Dick. It will stand on a granite base engraved with Melville’s hymn, “The Ribs and Terrors in the Whale.”
The unveiling comes 184 years after Melville boarded a whaling ship from New Bedford Harbor, an experience that inspired Moby-Dick. The novel’s opening chapters are set in New Bedford, and Seamen’s Bethel served as the model for the chapel in Father Mapple’s sermon.
Rocknak, chair of the philosophy department at Hartwick College in New York, was selected from 41 artists who submitted proposals. Mayor Jon Mitchell said the project drew top talent from across the country because of New Bedford’s central role in inspiring one of the English language’s greatest novels.
