Behind the Scenes
at Plimoth Plantation

Current articles in this section:

1. Firing Up the Kiln

2. Ordinarie Technology

3. Notes on a Shallop

4. Archaeology at Plimoth Plantation: Key to the Past

5. Maritime Programs at Plimoth Plantation

6. Recreating the Material Culture of Mayflower II

7. Documenting Mayflower II

8. Hands Across the Bay: A 1957 Crewmember Sails Again

9. A New Furnace for Mayflower II

10. The Story and Crew of 1957's Mayflower II

11. Why P-l-i-m-o-t-h?

Maritime Programs at Plimoth Plantation

by Peter Arenstam, Manager, Maritime Artisans

The sea played an important role in the lives of the colonists. Plymouth Colony was (and still is), perched on the edge of Cape Cod Bay. Any contact the colonists had with their lives back in England came over the sea in ships. They relied on the waters around Plymouth for food and attempts for economic gain. Travel to other areas of New England was generally easier by boat. Plymouth harbor, and the guns mounted on a hill overlooking the town, provided a measure of defense from attack. The sea and maritime trades of the 17th century are therefore an important part of the story we tell here at Plimoth Plantation.

Mayflower II, a reproduction of the original ship which brought colonists to the New World in 1620, is the center of the maritime program at Plimoth Plantation. An organization in England, Project Mayflower Ltd., built the ship in the 1950s intending her to be a symbol of the bond developed between England and America during World War II. It was a fortunate circumstance that at the same time, Plimoth Plantation was looking for a way to get the reproduction ship built.

Warwick Charlton, a journalist on Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery’s staff during the war, saw how American and British soldiers had worked well together. After the war he wanted to foster that relationship with a grand symbolic gesture. While reading Governor Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, he hit on the notion of building a new Mayflower, sailing it to America, then giving it to the people of the United States as a gift.

William Baker, a naval architect and maritime historian, had been doing research for Plimoth Plantation on the question of what Mayflower actually looked like. With only the facts that her name was Mayflower, the ship’s size was 180 tuns, and a bit about her rigging Baker was able to use design practices from the 17th century to come up with a set of plans representing a typical mid-sized 17th-century English merchant vessel.

Project Mayflower Ltd. and Plimoth Plantation worked out an arrangement where Project Mayflower would build the ship using Baker’s plan and sail the ship to America. Plimoth Plantation would take ownership and provide exhibition space. The builder was Stuart Upham & Sons Ltd. of Brixham England.

The keel for the new ship was laid on July 28, 1955. She was built of Devon oak by shipwrights using traditional tools and methods. Everyone involved with the construction of the ship was concerned that, as much as possible, 17th-century practices and materials be used. Two suits of sails were hand-sewn of flax canvas. The rigging was all made from tarred Italian hemp and blacksmiths hand-forged the ironwork. The modern British board of trade necessitated one change with the past. They required Mayflower II be fitted with a wheel for steering the ship (something not found on a ship until the 1700s). The traditional whipstaff, a lever connected to the end of the tiller, had not been seen on ships for hundreds of years and the board did not believe it would be adequate to control the ship. The completed hull was launched on September 22, 1956 after a 17th-century ceremony of toasting the ship, the builder and the sea.

Captain Alan Villiers, an Australian born square-rigged ship sailor, commanded Mayflower II when she left Plymouth England on April 20, 1957. He had years of experience sailing ships, including his 1939 voyage around the world in the training ship Joseph Conrad. His first and second mates both held master certificates in sailing vessels and he chose crewmen he knew to be able sailors.

It is believed Mayflower took a northerly route across the Atlantic in 1620. Before Mayflower II left England Captain Villiers intended to follow the earlier ship’s example. However, after a few days out, Villiers decided it would be safer, although somewhat longer, to take a southerly trade winds route to reach America. His ship was untried and the crew had little experience with it. Villiers felt it would be better to take a few more days at sea rather than unduly risk lives by taking the stormy northern route. The voyage was marked by mostly calm sailing in warm southern waters. The crew and ship were tested when nearing the Eastern seaboard of the United States by a two-day storm during which Mayflower II spent part of the time drifting with no sails set.

Like the original Mayflower before her Mayflower II’s first landfall and first shore side celebration was at Provincetown, Massachusetts. The original voyage lasted 66 days while Captain Villiers brought the ship in from the sea in 55 days. The next day, June 13, 1957, Mayflower II sailed into Plymouth harbor to great excitement and fanfare. Thousands of people came to view the ship and the men who sailed her to America.

The ship spent several weeks in Plymouth before setting out for Newport and New York City on an exhibition tour. The ship returned to Plymouth for Thanksgiving, then headed for Miami, Florida for the winter where she was on display for the public complete with “Pilgrim maiden” guides.

When Mayflower II returned to Plymouth a maritime program for exhibiting the ship had to be developed. The two approaches of an exhibit on the pier dealing with common maritime themes and an interpretive program on the ship were started in 1958 and carry on today. In the late 1950s the exhibit dealt with 17th-century shipbuilding, navigation and shipboard life. Mayflower II had signs and labels on various parts of the ship along with manniquins depicting passengers and sailors posed in shipboard scenes.

By the 1970s, research and training had advanced for the staff who now wore more accurate clothing for the 17th century and could discuss topics about the Mayflower story and maritime trades in depth. In 1979, the “first person” program was introduced aboard the ship as a style of interpreting history to the public. Staff on the ship took on the role of a passenger or sailor who made the crossing in 1620. They could discuss with a visitor any event of the time from their character’s unique point of view incorporating an understanding of the world in the 17th century.

At times, to add to the realism, chickens were kept in coops on the ship; sailors stood watches, ringing the ships bell to toll the passing of time; passengers engaged in the process of unloading their goods and belongings into the shallop for transportation ashore. Common shipboard activities from tarring the rigging to washing down the decks with buckets of salt water could all be carried out as a “first person” interpreter.

It was difficult to exhibit ship maintenance and repair as a 17th-century vessel. Mayflower II remained berthed at the State Pier in Plymouth for most of the time since 1958. She did sail in 1964 for a CBS documentary Saga of Western Man and was towed to the shipyard for routine maintenance, but most of the time Mayflower II could be found firmly secured to the pier. Maintenance and long term restoration became a concern.

The addition of a “third person” interpretive style provided a solution that allowed restoration work to be carried out using modern tools and updated techniques as well as giving the interpreter a broader range of topics to discuss with visitors. A “third person” interpreter can refer to any topic in the past and is not limited to a specific time or place in history. The interpreter can answer questions about the original Mayflower story of 1620 right up to and including the story of Mayflower II and the beginning of the museum.

An ability to maintain the ship to a very high standard became more important as the ship sailed more regularly. In 1990 Mayflower II sailed in Cape Cod Bay after 25 years of being a pier side exhibit. The ship was not built to modern safety standards and as a foreign built vessel was not permitted to carry passengers in U.S. waters. After working with the U.S. Coast Guard and gaining congressional approval to inspect the ship under alternate yet safe standards Mayflower II now carries a certificate of inspection and can carry up to 49 passengers with weather and geographic limitations. We have sailed Mayflower II to Provincetown three times, Boston once and in 2002 we went to Newport and Providence, Rhode Island.

Sailing the ship has helped renew interest in our ship and maritime programming in general. Along the way we continue to learn about maritime trades of the 17th century and look for ways to improve the way we use Mayflower II to interpret a fundamental story of colonial America.

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hours: Plimoth Plantation's Administrative offices, Education Department and Creative Gourmet are open 9 AM to 5 PM, M-F
address: 137 Warren Avenue, Plymouth, MA 02360 USA
telephone: 1 + 508 746 1622