I took a drive to Mystic, CT today to visit the library (more on that later in the week) and Bank Square Books, but had to pull over and investigate when I saw this:
See that big ship at the end of the block? That’s no Disney prop, it’s the actual ship Mayflower II hauled ashore.
The Mayflower II is a full scale replica of the original Mayflower that landed on American shores in 1620. The replica was built in Devon, England and sailed to the US in 1957.
The ship is in the initial stages of a multi-year, seasonal restoration project at The Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The restoration will be finished in 2020 which is the 400th anniversary of the original Mayflower’s arrival.
You can barely see him, but there’s a man in the lower left hand corner of the picture using a long pole to work on the side of the ship. This puts the size of the ship in perspective, doesn’t it? It’s nowhere near the size of today’s commercial ships, but its size is still impressive.
I’ve had Nathaniel Philbrick’s book Mayflower on my ‘to be read list’ for years now and seeing this replica of the ship makes me want to get to the book sooner rather than later.
