MAYFLOWER II's Rebirth: The replica ship as historic artifact

摘要

Through the ages, stories are written and rewritten. Just as a prism shifted to change its angle of incidence scatters a slightly different spectrum on a new surface, so stories can subtly alter over time in each generation's retelling. One story now being retold for a new generation is that of a ship-MAYFLOWER II, one of the most prominent "replicas," or reproduction ships, in the United States. In 1957, the ship completed its one great voyage, across the Atlantic from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, with none other than the great square-rig sailor and historian Alan Villiers in command. An expression of gratitude from the English people to the Americans after World War Ⅱ, she retraced the wake of the famous 1620 Pilgrim voyage and was turned over to Plimoth Plantation. Plimoth, which opened in 1947, was one of a then-new and now-venerable constellation of living-history institutions that included Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, opened in 1926; Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, in 1931; Stur-bridge Village, Massachusetts, in 1946; and Jamestown Settlement, Virginia, in 1957.