city (1990 pop. 99,922), seat of Bristol co., SE Mass., at the mouth of the Acushnet River on Buzzard's Bay; settled 1640, set off from Dartmouth 1787, inc. as a city 1847. Formerly one of the world's greatest whaling ports, it then became a leading port for the fishing and scalloping industries, but government regulations and a dwindling fish population has hurt those industries. New Bedford handles transatlantic and intracoastal trade. New Bedford's manufactures include clothing, textiles, electrical machinery, electronic components, rubber products, and metal goods. During the Revolution the harbor was a haven for American privateers, prompting the British to invade and burn the town in 1778. The whaling industry boomed after the Revolution, reaching a peak in the 1850s. The first cotton-textile mill in the city dates from 1846, but the textile industry declined in the 1920s. The Seamen's Bethel, described by Herman Melville in Moby-Dick; the Bourne Whaling Museum; the Old Dartmouth Historical Society; Friends' Academy (1810); and the Swain School of Design are in New Bedford. The Free Public Library holds a large collection of material on whaling. A sizable Portuguese-speaking population is in the city.

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