FIRST FRIDAY | Down to the Sea in Ships

Name: FIRST FRIDAY | Down to the Sea in Ships
Start: 2026-02-06T17:30:00-05:00
End: 2026-02-06T20:00:00-05:00
Location: 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA, United States, Massachusetts 02740

Schedule

Fri Feb 06 2026 at 05:30 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA, United States, Massachusetts 02740 | New Bedford, MA

Experience the film just as audiences did in the silent era—with live music.
Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), directed by Elmer Clifton and filmed in New Bedford, is a full-length silent feature presented in the Harbor View Gallery at the Whaling Museum with a live musical score performed on grand piano by Grammy-nominated concert pianist Dr. Jennifer A. Maxwell.
About the Film
A major hit in its day, Down to the Sea in Ships is both a dramatic whaling story and an extraordinary record of local maritime history. The film includes the only legally filmed whale hunt in cinema history and features semi-documentary footage of whalers at work, shot on historic New Bedford–area locations such as the Quaker Meeting House, Seamen’s Bethel, and the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, now on view at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Title cards incorporate quotations from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Alexander Starbuck’s History of the American Whale Fishery. Its opening credits praise the courage of cameramen A. G. Penrod and Paul H. Allen, who filmed whaling scenes from small boats at great personal risk. The film is also notable for introducing flapper-era icon Clara Bow in her screen debut.
About the Score
Drawing from archival material associated with the film’s 1922 New Bedford premiere as well as her own original compositions, Maxwell created musical themes for each character and type of action—hero and villain motifs, love themes, whaling passages, and more. She incorporates recognizable vintage tunes of the era, blending them with original music to evoke the period. Every musical cue is precisely timed to the corresponding scene, composed to transition seamlessly between keys, and designed to reinforce the narrative and unify the story in the absence of dialogue. The result is a score that is richly attuned to the film and performed dynamically in real time.
Down to the Sea in Ships is deeply rooted in New England history and offers a family-friendly experience. Enjoy a classic silent film and a live piano concert in one unforgettable evening.
Doors open at 5:30 PM with light bites and a cash bar in the Harbor View Gallery (Upper Level), offering limited cabaret-style seating and additional rows of chairs for film viewing. Remarks and the screening will begin promptly at 6:00 PM, and the event concludes at 8:00 PM.