A Wonderful Mayflower Experience Some of the greatest adventures begin in some of the most simple and unexpected ways. On August 9th, I received this email from a friend of mine - Mary Brown. Would you and April like to join a small group for an overnight on Mayflower II? It is Sept 28th and starts at 4 pm. We will bring our own bedding and have a jolly experience making believe we are on the ocean with lots of other people...or wherever your imagination wants to be. On the Mayflower??? How long has it been that this name has been a revered icon of our American history? Even back in my grammar school days (and that was a very LONG time ago), the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, and the year 1620 were being credited in my mind something like "The origins of our universe" - this is where it all began! What on Earth did she mean by "Overnight on the Mayflower"??? Well, it was real enough. In subsequent emails, Mary set out the details. All those interested would gather in Plymouth around 4:00 pm, board the boat around 5:00 pm, and be immersed in an overnight experience that included getting up close and personal with the ship itself, tales from the ship's master, experience a short row in the ship's longboat or shallop (Sailing rowboat), trying on clothing from the period, and see a firsthand account of the 1957 crossing of the Atlantic. There would be breakfast on board the next morning, and we would all get to visit the Plimouth Plantation the next day. It all sounded interesting enough, but I had no idea how interesting it was going to be... All of our plans were made expecting generally nice weather - a little cool maybe, but sleeping on deck under the stars was a nice thought. The weather forecast was not so optimistic, and our initial gathering in Plymouth had dampened our expectations but not
our spirits. After all, when the Pilgrims made that original voyage, they started with 10 days of pretty nice weather, and the last 56 days in the Atlantic were filled with rain and periodic heavy winds. When I originally thought about "emersion" in this experience, this was not quite the "emersion" I was expecting. What I didn't expect was the personal attention we received almost from the moment we got there. Kim was a trooper. She greeted us at the door with her enthusiasm and an upbeat spirit that lead us through torrential downpours that would have squelched the fire in any other group experience. Not with Kim! She introduced us to the ship and to the local history of the area with an infectious smile and confidence that held everyone's attention.
Vicky was outstanding. Not only with an effervescent character, but with her knowledge and projection into the crowd. Absolutely no-one was left behind. Both Kim and Vicky stayed with us for both days through everything as our expected itinerary changed from time to time due to the weather. This adventure would not have been as successful it if weren't for their attentiveness. They were very much appreciated.
Even in the rain, the Mayflower has a distinctive nature about her. Her Galleon styling takes us back to those days of "Iron men and wooden ships". But the Mayflower was behind the times in her combat capability, and her two rear facing guns were intended to dissuade pursuing pirates instead of engaging them in a fire fight. For that historic voyage, the Mayflower offered a single deck roughly 90 feet long to her 102 passengers and their animals. The floor was reported to be covered with a layer of straw, effectively offering the passengers a close quarters litter box for the duration of the voyage. When you hear about stormy weather for 56 straight days, probably everyone was seasick. Combined with normal human and animal bodily functions, these accommodations must have stunk to high heaven. Fortunately, our little group was not required to explore the full "Experience". Our actual encounter with history began with a tour of the ship. As time travelers, we got to speak to actual crewmen on the Mayflower. They all spoke in the language of the age, they were up on "Current events", and they maintained blank expressions with mention of "Computers" and the "Internet".
Mayflower accommodations were "Rustic" at best. The above stateroom was probably for a family of four, including chickens and maybe a couple sheep.
It must have been a delightful adventure for those travelers so long ago, as long as the weather was good. Torrential downpours in this present day and age did manage to give us a taste of what 56 days of bad weather might have been like. The boat leaked like an old barn roof. We were all prepared to spend the night aboard with our air mattresses and sleeping bags, but to find a dry spot to put them was another story. Yet, this is how it was - part of the adventure. Even the kitchen on the ship was open to us.
From stem to stern to the very highest deck, we had access to it all. With the right attitude, it was like being a kid in a giant sandbox - wet, but it was still a lot of fun. With our introduction to the Mayflower behind us, we were escorted by our wonderful guides into the history surrounding the ship and its precious cargo. A short walk in the rain brought us to the famous "Plymouth Rock". It's amazing. There is no real documentation that this was actually the first place the Pilgrims set foot on this new land. It is rumored that this particular boulder has been split, chipped, cracked, moved, and glued back together at different times throughout
history. Yet, here it is in its current state of glory - lying in a patch of sand surrounded by a cage under what looks like a Greek temple. Maybe the date that was chipped into the surface is a clue. Maybe even that was not original. The first guys ashore were probably hungry, wet, and seriously in search of a suitable place to begin a new life. Our little walk in the rain continued on to Leiden Street - the original "Main Street" that the original village and fort were built around. The buildings on the street look respectably current by today's standards because the location overlooking the ocean is still a great place to live. The historical groups in town relocated their restoration and reproduction efforts to a similar spot a couple miles away. OK. Enough with the rain! We all beat feet back to the shelter of the boat where our emersion in history began in earnest. Below, the ship's master is telling us about the history behind the ship, its original construction, and what it was like to bring her across the Atlantic. The Mayflower II still took almost two months to get here from England. This old girl does not move very fast.
Tales from the ship's master were barraged by questions, and answered directly. Amazing detail for actively curious listeners. It was also time to embark on our active training in the ship's longboat. Yes, it was intended that we were going to all become the pilgrims again, and repeat the row from the Mayflower to the shore. Yes, we were all going to grab an oar, and pull together like we knew what we were doing - in the rain. Well, it rained a lot on the Pilgrims. Many of us were having second thoughts about how very wet this mile and a half row in the rain would be. Someone suggested that we might have to actually bail this rowboat out before we even started.
As the ship's master was winding up his presentation, he had to speak up to be heard over the pounding of the deluge on the deck boards above us. He looked around at all of the faces of his new "crew", listened to the roar of the rain overhead, smiled, and suggested that this might not be a great time to go on a little row around the bay. There were no arguments. Once he was able to break free from the barrage of questions, Kim grabbed our attention with an animated discussion of the clothing worn back then.
The garb of the day was obviously different from what we wear today, but not because they were all making designer statements. Dinner was served on the "tween" decks around 7:00 pm. True, pizza and a variety of salads were not a part of any traditional Pilgrim diet, but this current crew was really hungry. I have to smile, thinking about the delivery guy wearing this big old grin on his face, carrying his oven bags over his back like an old sailor, just knowing that he had NEVER made a delivery to a party on this boat before. Vicky took center stage after the feeding frenzy had finally settled down. With a copy of William Bradford's only written documentation of the voyage and the events surrounding the crossing, she launched us into the real meaning of what it was like to be a Pilgrim. Some people have a way of bringing history to life. Vicky was a master of sensorial projection, and we could actually live the times, asking questions, and reveling in the answers. The trance she brought us through with her speaking and pantomime was as effective as time travel could be. As she spoke, the tide came in, and the gentle rocking of the boat only added to the realism. But even that had to come to an end sometime.
I stood there for a while, watching the ebb and flow in the puddles at our feet. The last stage of our experience was to actually sleep on the decks of the Mayflower. It is difficult to imagine how we all felt about actually sharing a piece of history so closely. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I was beginning to scan the floor for enough square feet to actually set up an air mattress where it might stay dry for the duration of our encounter. There were only about 16 of us, but there was an awful lot of very wet deck that we were standing on. The ship's master came back with a weather report of possible thunder storms. He explained how a ship out in a bay with tall masts reaching into the sky was NOT a good place to be in a thunder storm. The Mayflower actually caught fire once due to a lightning strike. So, with deep regrets and an offer to come back again sometime in the future, our hosts opened up the Plimouth Plantation Welcome Center for us to use as our "campsite". We could use a few carpeted classrooms to set up for the night. There were bathrooms just down the hall, and breakfast would be served in the morning. Being inspired by Vicky's readings, someone in the room commented "and by God's great providence" (as William Bradford was so fond of saying). We all laughed and happily moved off the boat to our new overnight accommodations.
I must admit, I have never camped like this before. But then, this too is a part of the Mayflower adventure. The Pilgrims had to be adaptable, flexible, and willing to try new things. OK. This was a little different for us. We can do this!
Breakfast in the morning: The Mayflower spirit - to adapt to the situation. The Plantation was not really set up to receive overnight guests. We found a coffee pot and coffee, but the filters did not fit the machine. We improvised with a paper towel. We found yogurt cups but no spoons. Hmmmmm. Little plastic forks will work in a pinch. There was a big coffee cake on the table, but no plastic knives to cut it. A little rooting around in the kitchen drawers turned up a small pie server. That would do just fine. And so the lessons from the Mayflower continued... Not only did the Plantation put us up for the night, they gave us complete access to their site in the morning.
A guided tour of 1621 - Half of the population died that first winter. But from those 51 survivors, there are now an estimated ten million descendants. Many of our group were descendants from this original 51. I did feel honored to have met their acquaintance during this adventure. The Wampanoag Indians were the indigenous people that had been living around this area for 1200 years before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. Their cohabitation on this ground was a little unsettled due to previous contact the Indians had with slave traders and fishermen with guns. When William Bradford and his group of explorers found the ideal site for their new village, they were a little surprised to find corn growing in the gardens on a cleared hillside. As it turned out, this open space was a Wampanoag village that was deserted because small pox, another gift from offshore visitors, had wiped out their entire population. The few Indians living outside this area were too poorly equipped to fight off their visitors, so they opted to try to live together in some form of peace and cooperation. So goes the story behind the first Thanksgiving.
The one element that stuck out the most in my mind as I was touring these grounds was the smoke. The houses in the English village were mud huts with thatched roofs, wooden chimneys, and open fires - no real windows. When I talked to the people living inside these houses, I asked them about it being dark and smoky. Their comments suggested that this is just the way it was. Average life span was probably 35 years at the time. The multi-family huts in the Indian village were covered with tree bark, and heated by a single smoky fire in the center. That little hole in the ceiling did not seem adequate to properly ventilate this space. The clothes I was wearing still smelled like smoke when I got home later that day. They didn't need cigarettes. They all smoked just by being there. Well, that is just the way it was back then. The experience was very different from what I had expected, yet so worth the trip. Our guides Vicky and Kim were great. The rain never once dampened our spirits. Thank you Mary Brown for inviting us to experience this fabulous adventure.