Mayflower II is a reproduction of the 17th-century ship Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World in 1620.[3] The reproduction was built in Devon, England during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick Charlton and Plimoth Patuxet (at the time known as Plimoth Plantation), a living history museum. The work drew upon reconstructed ship blueprints held by the American museum, along with hand construction by English shipbuilders using traditional methods.[3]Mayflower II was sailed from Plymouth, Devon on April 20, 1957, recreating the original voyage across the Atlantic Ocean,[3] under the command of Alan Villiers. According to the ship's log, Mayflower II arrived at Plymouth on June 22; it was towed up the East River into New York City on Monday, July 1, 1957, where Villiers and crew received a ticker-tape parade. The ship was listed on the US National Register of Historic Places in 2020.[4]
The ship was built at the Upham Shipyard in Brixham and financed by private donations in England and Plimoth Plantation. It represented the alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States for collaboration during the Second World War.[3] The ship is considered a faithful generic reproduction within a few details (electric lights added and ladder replaced with a lower-deck staircase), with solid oak timbers, tarred hemp rigging, and hand-coloured maps. It is 106ft (32m) long by 25ft (7.6m) wide, 236 tons displacement, three masts (mainmast, foremast, mizzen), a bowsprit and 6 sails.
The ship is seaworthy and sailed to Providence, Rhode Island in 2002. In December 2012, Mayflower II was towed to dry dock at Fairhaven Shipyard in Fairhaven, Massachusetts for Coast Guard inspection as well as repairs. The repairs took longer than originally planned because unexpected damage was discovered during the inspection. Repairs were eventually completed and Mayflower II returned to her berth in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on August 7, 2013.[5] In December 2015, the ship arrived at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at the Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT for restoration. The ship returned temporarily to Plymouth for the 2016 summer season and has returned permanently in 2020,[6] just in time for the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims' arrival.[7][8]
History
In Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts
In August 1954, Warwick Charlton, conceived the idea to construct a reproduction of Mayflower to commemorate the wartime cooperation between the United Kingdom and the United States. He had served alongside many American allies in the North African theatre during World War II. Project Mayflower was created in 1955 to build a replica of Mayflower in England and sail the ship to the United States as a symbol of Anglo-American friendship.[3]
The project's sponsors wanted to ensure proper siting of the ship after it reached the United States.[3] They were aware that earlier reproduction vessels had rotted away after interest in their initial voyages faded. Project Mayflower learned of the Plimoth Plantation museum, and John Lowe of Project Mayflower, came to the United States in March 1955. He met with representatives of Plimoth Plantation to gain assistance in future berthing and exhibition of Mayflower II.[3]
Plimoth Plantation had planned years earlier to add a replica of Mayflower to its exhibits.[3] In 1951, the museum had already commissioned plans for a Mayflower II from naval architectWilliam A. Baker of MIT. Baker's detailed plans had been finished by the time that Project Mayflower announced its goals. A waterline model of the vessel's hull had also been built, but nothing more.[3]
By the spring of 1955, the two organizations negotiated an agreement:[3] in exchange for using Baker's design plans and advice, plus the Plimoth Plantations' guarantee to maintain and exhibit the vessel permanently, Project Mayflower agreed to build Mayflower II and sail her across the Atlantic Ocean, visiting various East Coast ports to exhibit the ship. The Project would then release it to Plimoth Plantation.[3]
The construction of Mayflower II was conducted at the Upham shipyard in Brixham, Devon, England.[3] The ship's keel was laid on July 27, 1955, and William A. Baker was sent by Plimoth Plantation to advise the builders and view the progress of the ship's construction.[3]
The ship was replicated as accurately as possible, with carefully chosen English oak timbers, hand-forged nails, hand-sewn linencanvas sails, hemp cordage, and the Stockholmtar of the type used on 17th-century ships.[3]Mayflower II has the brown hull and the dark-red strapwork ornamentation of 17th-century merchant ships, based on analysis of the traditional colors and designs of English merchant ships illustrated in Dutch and English paintings. Carved into the stern of Mayflower II is a blossom of a hawthorne or English mayflower.[3] In England, the skills of elderly traditional workmen were employed to build a vessel that reflected Baker's detailed research which could sail the Atlantic as securely as the original ship.[3]
Mayflower II was launched on September 22, 1956, a rainy day.[3] The ceremony was based on knowledge about christenings of 17th-century vessels. The ship was toasted from a gold loving cup that was afterward thrown into the water, and then quickly retrieved by an underwater diver, in the traditional manner.[3] The ship slid gracefully down the ways to enter Brixham harbor with a large splash.
She was towed round to Plymouth, Devon, and on April 20, 1957 towed from there to begin her transatlantic voyage. Her captain, Commander Alan Villiers, soon decided that with her somewhat slender spars and authentic 17th century rigging, which lacked the later bobstay to hold the bowsprit steady, she might not make a direct route against the Atlantic storms without being dismasted. He altered course southwards and followed the trade winds in a wide southerly loop before sailing up the east coast of America, where on June 8 off Bermuda she met the one real gale of the crossing. She lay to all night and weathered it without loss, and made land at Provincetown, where the original Mayflower had first put in on June 12.[9] Among the crew was Peter Padfield, who went on to become a naval historian.[10]
Since 1957, Mayflower II has been a pier side tourist attraction, moored at Long Wharf near the site of Plymouth Rock. The ship has been a popular attraction near Boston; it has become the site of national and state celebrations.
On Thanksgiving 1970 (the 350th anniversary of Mayflower landing), members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) led by Russell Means seized Mayflower II in protest of the United States government's failure to abide by treaties with American Indians and its poor treatment of them.
21st century events
The refurbished Mayflower II awaiting launch.
In December 2012, Mayflower II was towed to dry dock in Fairhaven Ship Yard in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, where shipbuilders and U.S. Coast Guard inspectors called for extensive repairs. This was the first in a number of scheduled repairs over the next seven years to restore Mayflower II to pristine condition for the 400th anniversary of the English settlement of Plymouth in 2020. Expected costs for these repairs were expected to exceed two million dollars.
Starting in December 2014 and continuing until 2020, Mayflower II spent its summers in Plymouth on display and winters at the Mystic Seaport being restored.[7] It left Plymouth on November 1, 2016 and again sailed through the Cape Cod Canal. On September 7, 2019, the ship was launched in a public ceremony, and spent several further months at the shipyard before its first voyage, to Boston, in May 2020.[11]
John Alden was an English politician, settler, and cooper, best known for being a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not initially a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.
The Mayflower Compact, originally titled Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth, was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the men aboard the Mayflower, consisting of Separatist Puritans, adventurers, and tradesmen. Although the agreement contained a pledge of loyalty to the King, the Puritans and other Protestant Separatists were dissatisfied with the state of the Church of England, the limited extent of the English Reformation and reluctance of King James I of England to enforce further reform.
Plymouth Colony was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on the Mayflower at a location that had previously been surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of what is now the southeastern portion of Massachusetts. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the American tradition of Thanksgiving and the monument of Plymouth Rock.
Plymouth is a town and county seat of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as "America's Hometown". Plymouth was the site of the colony founded in 1620 by the Mayflower Pilgrims, where New England was first established. It is the oldest municipality in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. The town has served as the location of several prominent events, one of the more notable being the First Thanksgiving feast. Plymouth served as the capital of Plymouth Colony from its founding in 1620 until the colony's merger with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. The English explorer John Smith named the area Plymouth and the region 'New England' during his voyage of 1614. It was a later coincidence that, after an aborted attempt to make the 1620 trans-Atlantic crossing from Southampton, the Mayflower finally set sail for America from Plymouth, England.
Mystic Seaport Museum is a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, the largest in the United States. Its 19-acre (0.077 km2) site holds a collection of ships and boats and a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport village consisting of more than 60 historic buildings, including many rare commercial structures that were moved to the site and meticulously restored. As of 2016, the museum received about 250,000 visitors each year.
John Carver was one of the Pilgrims who made the Mayflower voyage in 1620 which resulted in the creation of Plymouth Colony in America. He is credited with writing the Mayflower Compact and was its first signer, and was also the first governor of Plymouth Colony.
John Oldham was an early Puritan settler in Massachusetts. He was a captain, merchant, and Indian trader. His death at the hands of the Indians was one of the causes of the Pequot War of 1636–37.
Plimoth Patuxet is a complex of living history museums in Plymouth, Massachusetts founded in 1947, formerly Plimoth Plantation. It replicates the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English colonists who became known as the Pilgrims. They were among the first people who emigrated to America to seek religious separation from the Church of England. It is a not-for-profit museum supported by administrations, contributions, grants, and volunteers. The recreations are based upon a wide variety of first-hand and second-hand records, accounts, articles, and period paintings and artifacts, and the museum conducts ongoing research and scholarship, including historical archaeological excavation and curation locally and abroad.
Joseph Conrad is an iron-hulled sailing ship, originally launched as Georg Stage in 1882 and used to train sailors in Denmark. After sailing around the world as a private yacht in 1934 she served as a training ship in the United States, and is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.
Speedwell was a 60-ton pinnace that carried a band of English Dissenters now popularly called the Pilgrims from Leiden, Holland, to England, whence they intended to sail to America aboard both the Speedwell and the Mayflower in 1620. The Pilgrims initially set sail in both ships, but Speedwell was found to be unseaworthy and both ships returned to England. The Pilgrims later left Speedwell behind and sailed in the Mayflower alone.
Charles W. Morgan is an American whaling ship built in 1841 that was active during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ships of this type were used to harvest the blubber of whales for whale oil which was commonly used in lamps. Charles W. Morgan has served as a museum ship since the 1940s and is now an exhibit at the Mystic Seaport museum in Mystic, Connecticut. She is the world's oldest surviving (non-wrecked) merchant vessel, the only surviving wooden whaling ship from the 19th century American merchant fleet, and second to USS Constitution, the oldest seaworthy vessel in the world. Charles W. Morgan was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Alan John Villiers, DSC was a writer, adventurer, photographer and mariner.
Humility Cooper, of Leiden, Holland, traveled in 1620 on the voyage of the ship Mayflower as a one-year-old female child in the company of the Edward Tilley family. Although Edward Tilley and his wife died the first winter in the Plymouth Colony, Cooper survived to live her young life in Plymouth Colony, returning to England possibly in her teen years. Her fate in England is unknown.
The Marques was a British-registered barque that sank during the Tall Ships' Races in 1984.
Emma C. Berry is a fishing sloop located at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, United States, and one of the oldest surviving commercial vessels in America. She is the last known surviving American well smack. This type of boat is also termed a sloop smack or Noank smack. The Noank design was imitated in other regions of the United States.
William Avery Baker was a distinguished naval architect of replica historic ships and a maritime historian, who was curator of the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Museum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1963–1981.
Mayflower was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, Mayflower, with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reached what is today the United States, dropping anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on November 21 [O.S. November 11], 1620.
The Sparrow-Hawk was a 'small pinnace' similar to the full-rigged pinnace Virginia that sailed for the English Colonies in June 1626. She is the earliest ship to participate in the first decades of English settlement in the New World to have survived to the present day.
Peter L. N. Padfield was a British author, biographer, historian, and journalist who specialised in naval history and in the Second World War period. His early journalism appeared under the name P. L. N. Padfield. As well as his non-fiction work, he also published four novels.
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