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The Mayflower IIâthe replica of the 1620 ship that brought the Pilgrims to America and launched a nationâis seen by some 2.6 million visitors to Plymouth annually and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But there is much more to the replicaâs story than meets the eye. In fact, the origins of Project Mayflower began in the 1950s not with an American, but with a British World War II veteran named Warwick Charlton who had what seemed an impossible dream: to build a historically accurate replica, sail her across the Atlantic, and present the finished product as a thank-you to his countryâs wartime ally. What Charlton didnât know was that the son of a powerful New England financier had the same idea. Henry âHarryâ Hornblower II wanted a replica just as badly, though for a different reason: as the star attraction for a new museum he was building in Massachusetts, soon to be known as Plimoth Plantation, where the original Mayflower had landed centuries before. Despite clearly different personal motives, Charlton and Hornblower agreed to join forces when they met by chance in 1955. Charlton would be responsible for financing, construction, and the vesselâs safe passage across the Atlantic, while Hornblower promised mooring, maintenance, and exhibition. Neither man could imagine what would happen next. Project Mayflower recounts the never-before-told story of a grand adventure, from the origins of the idea, through the financial and political influences that nearly scuttled the ship, and the challenges of building an accurate replica based on a single known mention: William Bradfordâs reference in Of Plimoth Plantation describing his craft simply as â180 tons of burden.â From there, Stone traces the Mayflower IIâs dramatic seven-week ocean voyage from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the skilled hands of Alan Villiers and a crew of thirty-three bold men, and finishes by exploring the legacy of praise for the achievement, the skulduggery to tarnish the reputation of the projectâs creator, and finally the Mayflower IIâs lastingâand ongoingâimpact on the United States of America. |
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