Down to the Sea in Ships is a 1922 American silent romantic drama film about a 19th-century Massachusetts whaling family. Directed by Elmer Clifton, the film stars William Walcott, Marguerite Courtot, and Clara Bow. The film's title comes from the Book of Psalms in the Bible, (Psalm 107, verses 23-24).

Captain Charles W. Morgan (William Walcott) is a well-respected businessman who owns a fleet of whaling ships in the Quaker town of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He is very close to his shy, obedient daughter, Patience (Marguerite Courtot), and tells her that she must marry a man who is a whaler and a Quaker, like him. His son and daughter-in-law were lost ten years before while on a whaling expedition; eventually, their baby, his granddaughter Dot (Clara Bow), was found floating near shore on a raft made of branches. He has raised her ever since. Dot is a mischievous, rebellious child, who wants to be a whaler when she grows up, an ambition that is not acceptable for a female among her people.

One day, a childhood friend of Patience's, Allan Dexter (Raymond McKee) arrives in town, recently back from college. He and Patience renew their acquaintance and fall in love. He goes to ask Captain Morgan for permission to marry Patience, but Captain Morgan turns him out of the house, informing him that he is not a suitable husband for her because he is neither a Quaker nor a whaler.

The film contains semi-documentary footage of whalers at work, and was shot on historic locations in Massachusetts, New England, most notably in New Bedford, and at the Apponegansett Meeting House in Dartmouth. The film's title cards are notable for having quotes from Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and Alexander Starbuck's History of the American Whale Fishery.[1]

The authenticity of the whaling scenes are noted in the opening screen credits, which praise the bravery of both A.G. Penrod and Paul H. Allen, the cameramen, "who, in small boats, stood by their cameras at the risk of their lives to photograph the fighting whales."

The Charles W. Morgan was one of the whaling ships used in the film.

The film's premiere was September 25, 1922 at the Olympia Theater in New Bedford, Massachusetts[2] and was in general distribution from March 4, 1923.

It was very popular with audiences, playing for 22 weeks straight in New York City. Critics gave it low marks, but several went out of their way to praise Bow's performance.

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