The Mayflower II

In the Fall of 1620 one hundred crazy Pilgrims set sale from London Town for Virginia....and landed 66 days later at the tip of what we now call Cape Cod, way up in what we now call Massachusetts. They landed on November 11 and spent their first New England Winter aboard their little ship, the Mayflower. Half of them died that first Winter. In the Spring they founded Plymouth.

This is Plymouth Rock, a large granite beach pebble on which they carved the year of their arrival. In the '50s the English built a Replica of the Mayflower and sailed it to Plymouth, Mass, where they presented it to the American people to commemorate our close ties. The Mayflower II is still at harbor a hundred yards from Plymouth Rock, where Jan visited it as a kid. She remarked to me years later that what struck her was the tiny size of the Vessel with which 100 Pilgrims and 30 Crew crossed the Open Atlantic. It measures just 100ft from Stem to Stern, smaller than some Rich people's yachts. We visited the Mayflower II on the way to Cape Cod.

Jan thinks it still looks tiny for it's Job.

This is the space on the Passenger Deck (beneath the main deck, actually a Hold) occupied by one Family. Six feet by six feet. The horizontal boards in the background are hull planks so in this PIC you are looking from the center of the ship outward. Passengers weren't allowed on Deck as they might interfere with the operation of the Ship. There was a cargo Deck beneath the Passenger Deck where all their equipment, belongings and food were stored. Wow.

Beer was an important Food Source....a Gallon a day, the equivalent of 11 Drinks. Wow. No Prohibition for those Pilgrims, Eh?

Location:Plymouth, Ma