In Mattapoisett’s small, protected harbor Joseph Meigs built ships that earned a worldwide reputation.

Born in 1776 on a Rochester farm, Meigs started working in local shipyards at 17 years old. He eventually purchased his own yard and a tavern. Later in his career he become a judge and state legislator who used his influence to establish Ned’s Point Lighthouse.

But his shipbuilding brought him global recognition.

“The Meigs name was known throughout the ports of the world for being some of the finest whaling ships,” said Seth Mendell, a member of the Mattapoisett Historical Society.

On Sunday, Mendell shared Meigs’s contributions to Mattapoisett at a lecture in Shipyard Park.

The park itself is a short walk from where Meigs opened his tavern. His shipbuilding yard was located where the Town Beach is today.

At the time, 300 to 400 men worked in the yards. As a young man, he delivered fresh produce from his father’s farm to merchants.

“He soon found that he preferred the fresh smells of the waterfront, the salt air and the fresh cut timber, to the barnyard,” Mendell said.

He quickly learned the trade. By the time he was 24 years old in 1880 he earned the title of master carpenter. In that role he oversaw the management of one of the shipyards.

Mendell said Meigs’s rise was due to his intellectual curiosity. He read as often as possible, on a wide range of topics, but mostly naval construction and politics.

In 1779, he opened Meigs Tavern where the Inn at Shipyard Park is located today and soon after opened his own shipyard.

“You’d think with the tavern and the shipyard to run he’d slow down,” Mendell said. “He didn’t.”

Meigs decided to earn his law degree and took classes in Boston. He traveled there a few times a week and met his wife at a tavern in Pembroke where he would stop for his evening meals.

Mendell said she had a knack for business and took over the tavern’s day-to-day operations.

“The store became well known because you could find anything there,” Mendell said. “Anything from an anchor to a silk purse.”

After earning his law degree, Meigs secured a judgeship in the Great and General Court of Plymouth. He also became involved in politics. In 1838, he was elected to the state senate.

Mendell noted that Meigs, working alongside John Quincy Adams, urged the government to pay for a navigational study of the area, which eventually led to the lighthouse being built.

With a lifetime of accomplishments behind him two tragic events contributed to his death, Mendell said.

His eldest son, Joseph Jr., died in 1841 at 32 years old of pneumonia.

“He was the apple of his father’s eye. His whole life, he worked alongside his father in the family businesses,” said Mendell. “It devastated the old man.”

His next eldest son stepped up. “He wasn’t groomed like Joe Jr. was, but was an able man,” said Mendell.

The second tragedy followed what should have been cause for a celebration.

A whaling ship bearing Meigs’s name returned to Mattapoisett after four years at sea in 1846. In addition to building ships, Meigs owned six vessels of his own.

The voyage had been a good one.

“It was so successful that barrels of whale oil had to be lashed to the deck because there was no space below,” Mendell said. There was so much of the valuable commodity aboard that the ship couldn’t dock. The oil’s weight caused the ship to sink too deep below the water’s surface.

Instead, it was anchored near Ned’s Point.

“Some of the barrels were ferried to the shore on that hot summer afternoon,” Mendell said. “Later, two men were aboard the ship when it caught fire that night.”

It’s unclear how the fire started, but according to Mendell it burned so bright that Falmouth residents reported seeing the night sky glow red.

Meigs passed away in September of 1846 at 70 years old.

“He had had a good life,” Mendell said.