Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511240018
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-25 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: LOUIS J. SALOME COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
Three hundred seventy-five years after the Mayflower set sail from England for the New World, the English still proudly recall the voyage of ``the Pilgrim Fathers.''
The Mayflower hopped and skipped along England's southern coast before the small, weathered ship finally jumped from its last port of call onto the high seas with 102 Pilgrims aboard.
From the old London neighborhood of Redriffe to the ports of Southampton, Dartmouth and Plymouth, the Mayflower's route is marked by plaques, monuments, churches and pubs that proclaim the ship's departure points or lay claim to sites where its crew and passengers may have imbibed, eaten or prayed.
As legend has it, the journey began in London in early August 1620. The ship was moored on the south bank of the Thames River, near the Shippe pub and the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, a short distance downstream from Shakespeare's Globe Theater and London Bridge.
Capt. Christopher Jones, skipper and part-owner of the Mayflower, a wine carrier hired to make history, popped into a local pub for a pint of ale with his hardened local crew.
He received a sailor's blessing from the local vicar before departing with a handful of religious Separatists and other discontented Anglicans, eager to meet their cohorts in Southampton before sailing for the New World.
By mid-August, the Mayflower had linked up with the Speedwell, a smaller ship that carried about 35 more Separatists to the large port of Southampton from their self-imposed exile in Holland. The two ships, with a combined passenger list of 122, left Southampton on Aug. 15.
The rest of the England side of the trip was purely accidental. After almost a week at sea, the Speedwell began to leak badly, and both ships turned back and docked in Dartmouth for repairs.
After 10 days at Dartmouth, in late August both ships left England again. And again, this time about 300 miles west-southwest of England's southwesternmost point at Land's End, the leaky Speedwell could go no farther.
This time, the Pilgrims returned to the fishing port of Plymouth on Sept. 7. They remained there until Sept. 16, 1620, when they abandoned the Speedwell as unseaworthy and crammed 102 passengers, a crew of unknown size and what provisions they could carry into the Mayflower.
About 20 people decided to stay home rather than risk the adventure on one crowded ship.
Sixty-six days later, on Nov. 21, 1620, the Mayflower, cracked main beam and all, landed at Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod. The ship finally settled in Plymouth on Dec. 26, and remained there through the winter before heading for home April 5, 1621.
If the Mayflower had sailed directly from Southampton to the New World as intended, or even from Dartmouth, rather than from Plymouth, England, Plymouth, Mass., probably would have a different name today.
Monuments to the Pilgrims and the Mayflower and its crew dot the riverfront in London's Rotherhithe - formerly Redriffe - and Southwark neighborhoods. Once a vibrant part of the city's once-busy riverfront, Rotherhithe is undergoing a construction revival after 20 years of neglect caused by the collapse of river trade and traffic.
Many of the reputed historic sites are impossible to authenticate, because few records exist that predate 1700. But if they're not exact locations of a Mayflower or Pilgrim presence or original constructions from 1620, they come close enough to cover curious English and American visitors in a comforting blanket of history.
It can be documented, however, that Jones, the Mayflower's captain and part-owner, returned to Rotherhithe from the New World on May 6, 1621. Less than a year later, he died there and was buried in the yard of St. Mary's Church on March 5, 1622.
On July 2, a memorial to Jones was unveiled in the church yard by the U.S.-based National Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims to mark the 375th anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage.
As for the Mayflower, it was a wreck by 1624. Its salvage value was only about $205 in today's currency. It was broken up in Rotherhithe, probably not far from where its voyage to America began, and its pieces sold for scrap.
by CNB