THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1957.
MAYFLOWER II LEAVES NEXT MONTH
BR
men of the salt and tar
trudition have
RITAIN'S
done it again. With adzes and mullets and their bare hands-nothing more--they have built a replica of the 17th century Mayflower.
She now lies in a small Brixham (Devon) shipyard, ready to repeat trans-Atlantic history.
Next month, the trade
winds off the Cape Verde made The working Islands will fill the sails of range from four to 12 Mayflower II and send her in circumference. racing over the Atlantic in the wake of her famous predecessor.
The voyage will resemble the historic facts as closely as the
genlus of Britain's craftsmen can make it.
For Mayflower II is an exact replica of her 1820 forerunner, the overcrowded little ship that left Britain with a hardy band of religious objectors and. four months later, landed them on the rocky coast vf Massachu- setts.
A Painstaking Devon
of tor.
strived
ropes Juches
Bibles, sunflar to those carried by the original voyagers, were reproduced by a firm of Scottish publishers.
The ship will have lanterns instead of electric lighting. All 35 aboard will wear 17th cen- tury Purdan clothing,
The planks were hewn with adze and chisk from old Devon
Dalse.
ACORN, ADZE,
AND CHISEL craftsmen "Yes," said the builder, Mr for imitative per- Stewart Upham, us he stood be fection, almost to the last smear low among the smell of oil and There is, for instance, the inak, "people forget that it all
sprang from an acorn." surance policy which, with the exception of dates and amounts, is the same as that carried by the master of the lust flower.
It is written
with a quill pen.
NAVIGATION
May-
Object of the Mayflower's voyage: To fuster Anglo- American relations.
And to
Rive
22
.20
KEY TO DRAWING
"DRAWING BY CHARLES STRICKLAND”,
SIEGSSTØRENESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSESEE
Tain there was the problem of craftsmen. Where, after all, does one look for a man who could build! ship to 17th century
** designa?
And the money L'ost of the project, totalling about £100,000, is being borne by private dona tions from all over Britain and the Commonwealthı. American Mancial aid was refused.
RACING DOWN
THE TRADE WIND
of
launch her thun 25-year-old American ex-serviceman Itels Leming, who was awarded the George Cross for saving 22 British lives in the
East Coast Roods of 1933,
The launching was carried out in true olde style. Leming drank to Mayflower 11 from a gilt cup Alled with claret-then
threw
the cup into the water, where- upon divers leapt into the st retrieved the cup and presented it to him.
(Curious sidelight: Thunder rolled and lightning flashed over Brixham on the day of launch- Firms rushed to the ald Mayflower projects. The sails, Ing. But when Mayflower I slid valued a) several thousand down the slipway and rocked In
storm nonds, were given by a Scottish the water, the
censed Arm; the ropes-12 tons of them abruptly. Say the local folk; “A ---were made by another Scol- very good sign".) tigh company.
Builder Upham scoured Devon WIND JAMMER
for the right oak trees. Soon the
little Brixham yard was u pro- strate forest of oaks.
So the Mayflower will sall like
her predecessor, relying on her
southern. trip to pick up the trude winds near the Cape Verde Islands,
and from that point winging her way west across the singing breeze Atlantic with
1. Poop deck,
2. Quarter deck.
3. Upper deck. 4. Forecastio.
with Horo 6. Main deck.
their belongings, lived most of the Pilgrime Hammocks had not yet been introduced into this country, 20 boda were mado on deck, a second bost, In sections, apare
otc., прига,
work carried here.
d. Crew's quarters
7. Bosun's store.
8. Galley, with cooking
range,
9. Main hold,
containing
general cargo, barralled
beer, dried meat, vege. tables, eto.
AND SQUARE RIG when the
Australian born
is
Skipper of Mayflower II
Commander Alan John Villiars, 54, author of many beolts about the oca, rugged veteran of square-rigged days. Commander Villlers first went lo sea in sail as a boy of behind her,
16 and became the owner and Dut she will reachi the master of full-rigged ship, the Eastern American seaboard much Joseph Conrad, which he sailed quicker than the first Mayflower, round the globe. Twice he took taking perhaps six weeks In this windjammer round the stead of the original two and a stormy Cape Horn and won the half to three months, For this grain race. time the course is known ind also the dangers on the way.
Despite the technical ad-
repolition of old Mayflower days,
pilgrims
sufferod cruelly from overcrowding.
Rivalry for a place in the end Mayflower story does not there. Although Plymouth is best known as the starting point of the historic voyage, South- ampion puts in a strong claim. And Dartmouth. And Harwich. It seems all four have a claim, for the Mayflower-according to legend was built in Harwich. arwich, en Southampton but bad to put in at Plymouth
for re caulking and was interrupted д
K
second time when it hove to at Dartmouth (according to some historians) to take on passen-
Mayflower 11 will carry a crew of 21-recruited from the ranks of amateur enthusiasts in ocean gers from the other pligrim ship,
which had
sprung
these relations more practical expression, May- on parchment dower Projects, the non-prull- making concern organising the voyage, will give to the Ameri- can people "treasure chests" containing such articles as a roll vances in ship construction, racing and cruising and 14 Speedwell, AND OLD ROPE of Scottish tweed from Peebles, is doubtful if architects could "working passengers". She will a leak.
chemicals from a Darlington design a faster trade wind sail- carry no women. Navigation Instruments include firm,
parts trom knitting ing ship than Mayflower II- Hundreds sought passages on
On the other side, Province- the cross-staff, 17 century machines manufactured in within her linuls of length and Mayflower 11, Letters came from Plymouth, Massachusetts, Just -town is still wrangling with forerunner of the sextant, two Leicester.
load-carrying capacity.
places as far apart as Australia compasses, a binnucle, a candle • Biggest gift of all will be Her full bow
and
high, narrow and Malaya, Western Canada over the bay, as the historically Mayflower herself.
poop ensures that she can be and Fiji.
correct place of landing, But there the Ministry of Much work has gone into the driven hard before the wind And, even at this hour, there
I wonder if those 102 pil- Transport stepped In. "A new Mayflower Project since the idea with little risk of forcing in her is still a desperate search going grims, as they clambered wearily boat must have a radio and dawned on Mr Warwick Chart nose or being swamped from on amony many American through the surf of New Eng proper navigational equipment" tun, 37, un English writer and astern. And ocean saftors would families for the old papers that land, had any idea that three they ruled
So the Mayflower public relations officer, 11 years appreciate the deep curve of her could qualify them by descent centuries later men would will have a radio and other in a start with, there were five home.
bilges rising to a gentle tumble for the voyage. But the last thing for the right to honour their
Commander Villiers wants is a memory, years of research until an ac- Thousands watched the 183- Port Glasgow ropemakers put curate scale model of the first ton ship being launched Inst the clock back a few hundred Mayflower was discovered in September in the Brixham yard. years by producing cordage as Buckland Abbey. near Ply- And who better, with the
Anglo-American theme,
lantern.
strumenta unknown to the Pligrim Fathens.
To
near the original OS can be mouth.
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
STOPI DON'T COME
NEAR US! YOU'RE
NOT SUPPOSED TO
BE HERE! GO BACK
WHERE YOU CAME FROMI
JOHNNY
THEN WE'RE LICKED,
MARLONE AND THOSE
-- NOT SUPPOSED TO BE? WE WERE
DRAGGED HERE-- THROUGH A FOO!
HAZARD
'FRAID SO, SCOTTYI DH/WE'LL TRACK 'EM DOWN IN TIME SA BUT NOT THE "PROJECT GLOBE" PLANG | SOON ENOUGH TO WILL BE IN ENEMY HANDS STOP THOSE FILMS!}
PICS THE SPIES TOOK OF
SHORTLY!
WELL BE DELIGHTED
TO GO BACK.-F
YOU'LL TELL US HOW
BUT FIRST--TELL){ COME, SON! US WHERE WE ARE!
OUR ONLY COURSE NOW IS TO MAKE EBOJECT GLOBE AN ACCOMPLISHED FACT BEFORE THE ENEMY CAN FIGURS ITI PUT {JOHNNY AND KITTY ON A "CRASH SCHEDULE”.
GO WE CAN GO INTO PHASE 2. FAST I
to
By Dugal Smith
By Lee Falk and Phil Davis
WAIT--PONT DISSOLVE- PONTOO AWAY--
By Frank Robbins
DAYS PASS AS THE CRASH PROGRAM GOES INTO EFFECT, WHILE IN A SMALL FISHING VILLAGE ON HOKKAIDO ISLAND, JAPAN was
› HAL A NEW MAILING FROM THE 'STATESI Z MUST READY MY MEN
FOR ANOTHER "FISHING" TRIPS
vie
There's More than Magic in
FRY'S 4 FANDURITES
They
are Delicious
...this situation.
calls for a
San Miguel
10. Cargo.
11. General stores.
12. Barrels of water. 13. Barrels of
flour.
blucult
and
14. Typical temporary cabin. made with canvas bulk. heade/partitions.
15. Spocii cabina-two each
elde,
10. Tiller room.
17. Halmeman,
with whic
staff connection to tilior. 18. Captain's 'Great Room.' 19. Pens for livestock. 20,
Beak.
21. Bowsprit.
22. Foremast.
23. Mainmast.
24. Mizzon must.