Fairhaven

Fairhaven, town (township), Bristol county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on Buzzards Bay across the Acushnet River from New Bedford. The site was settled in 1652 by John Cooke, who, with John Winslow, purchased a tract of land (Sconticut) from the Wampanoag Indian chief Massasoit. After 1740 the community (then part of New Bedford and known as Oxford) was a centre of whaling operations. Herman Melville sailed (1841) from Fairhaven on the Acushnet on a...