Did you know…?
The Mayflower set sail from Devonshire, England, on this day—in 1957.
In August 1954, Englishman Warwick Charlton conceived the idea of building an exact replica of the Mayflower to commemorate the wartime cooperation between the US and the UK. Sponsored by Charlton and the Plimoth Plantation Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Project Mayflower got underway in 1955. The ship was replicated as exactly as possible, using English oak timbers, hand-forged nails, hand-sewn linen canvases, hemp ropes, and even Stockholm tar—the type used on seventeenth-century ships. Extensive research was done on every aspect of the ship, to make it as authentic as possible—even down to the color the boat was painted, the ornamental strapwork, and the hawthorne flower (called the English Mayflower) that was carved onto the stern.
On April 20, 1957, the Mayflower II set sail for America from Devonshire, England, under the command of Alan Villiers. The ship took little bit more of a southerly route than the original Mayflower, in order to avoid any ice or weather issues, but otherwise it was an exact replica of a period ocean crossing—there were no electronics or modern amenities on board and navigation was done the same way it had been in the seventeenth century. The ship even encountered a violent storm just off the coast of Bermuda, just as the original ship did. The voyage took 55 days and afterward Villiers got a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
The Mayflower II is still seaworthy but is now a tourist attraction, docked near Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Did you also know…?
- Potpourri
- Sweden once had two Leaps Days in one year.
- Doorways make you forget.
- In the wrong hands, one Christmas custom can bring a whole lot of bad luck.
- Because of a printer’s error, one edition of the Bible went from pious to downright wicked.
- Singing “Happy Birthday to You” in public can land you in jail.
- According to Italian space trackers, there are cosmonauts stranded in space.
- In Denmark, it is illegal to name your child Apple.
- A small strait off the coast of Wales is the scene of the strangest coincidence ever recorded.
- The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
- Nutmeg can kill you.
- A Frenchman once ate an entire airplane.
- Shakespeare wrote the first knock-knock joke.
- In fifteenth-century Britain, people were banned from wearing buttons.
- The fear of Friday the 13th is called Friggatriskaidekaphobia.
- The Mayflower set sail from Devonshire, England, on this day—in 1957.
- There is no need to be wary of Ides.
- The word “Abracadabra” was originally used to cure malaria.
- Post-it® notes were invented in church.