MAYFLOWER

mayflower MODEL

required over 350 hours to build

MODEL INFO

Plank on bulkhead construction a painstaking process -
each individual plank is added to the hull one at a time
Built with rare, high quality woods
The model rests on a CUSTOM MADE BASE
Hand stitched canvas sails.
metal /wood carved anchors
individualLY machined brass cannons !
Significant deck detail
extensively detailed & authentic hand tied rigging

To build the prototype ship, extensive research was
undertaken
using various sources such as museums, drawings, copies of
original plans
this same care and authenticity is extended to the model on
offer here

SCRATCH BUILT BY HAND

HISTORY

In August 1609, Andrew Pawling hired the Mayflower to carry cargo
to Norway; and to bring home pine planks, barrels of tar and
herrings. Pawlings was counting on his profit from this voyage to pay
outstanding debts.

Mayflower's voyage took longer than expected, encountering a severe
North Sea storm on the trip home that tossed it at sea for several
weeks.

Master Christopher Jones, the ship's captain, had some of the cargo,
and some of the ship's provisions, thrown overboard to lighten the
load and save everyone's lives. Way off schedule, the ship arrived to
find Pawling in jail for defaulting on his debts.

The 1609 adventures of the Mayflower are, in fact, the earliest
conclusive records relating to the ship that brought the Pilgrims to
America. One deposition in the case stated that Jones had been master
of the ship for a couple years prior to the 1609 sailing, so he
apparently came into possession of the ship around 1607; he was a
quarter-owner of the ship, the other owners at the time being John
Moore, Robert Childe, and Thomas Short.

Whether the ship was new at that time, or whether it had been
previously owned, cannot be satisfactorily answered with the
available records. A very reasonable hypothesis with some supporting
evidence was published in 1922, and suggests the Mayflower had been
previously owned by Robert Burton.

From 1609 through '20, Mayflower was used as a cargo ship carrying
English goods to France and Spain, almost always returning home
fully laden with French good fro the return journey. It's primary
ports of call were Bordeaux and La Rochelle, France.

In 1613 and 1614, the Mayflower and Christopher Jones changed the
usual wine trading routine temporarily, and made two voyages to
Hamburg, Germany, bringing home cargos of various fabrics and cloth.

In May 1620, the Mayflower returned from one of its usual voyages to
La Rochelle, France, fully loaded with French wines. The ship was
hired in London and sailed down to Southampton in July. Along with
the ship Speedwell the two embarked on their first voyage attempt on
August 5. The Speedwell was leaking too much, so the two ships put in
to Dartmouth for repairs. The second voyage attempt was made August
22.

The two ships made it 300 miles out into the Atlantic before the master
of the Speedwell, William Reynolds, decided the ship was too leaky to
continue. Both ships turned back, and put in to Plymouth
. There, the decision was made to forget the Speedwell. About 20
people, including the Blossom, Ring and Cushman families, decided to
quit from the voyage and go home.

The remaining 102 passengers and goods were packed onto the
Mayflower, and embarked from Plymouth, England to America on
September 6.

The Mayflower's crew sighted Cape Cod on November 9; they attempted
to sail south to an area around the mouth of the Hudson's River, near
modern-day Long Island, New York. They nearly shipwrecked to the
south of the Cape narrowly escaping, the decision was made not to try
that again--they would go back and explore Cape Cod.

They anchored off Provincetown Harbor on November 11, and over the
next month they put out several expeditions to survey Cape Cod and the
vicinity. By mid-December, running out of both patience and provisions
(including beer, the primary beverage since water was usually
contaminated with parasites), the Pilgrims decided upon the area we
now know as Plymouth Colony.

They continued to live out of the Mayflower for several months,
making trips to land to build storehouses and houses. Constructing
homes and storehouses proved to be very slow going: many were sick
and could not labor hard; bad weather frequently prevented much
work from being done; and the few structures they did build
occasionally succumbed to fire.

By April, the weather started turning for the better, the people's
healths began to recover, so on April 5, 1621, the Mayflower set sail
home for England, arriving back on May 6, bringing letters and news of
the successful establishment of Plymouth: but with a devastating 50%
loss of lives, and with no profit (lumber, furs, fish) sent home as cargo.

After returning home, the Mayflower was again employed in a trip to
France, bringing home to London a cargo of salt. Shortly thereafter,
her master and quarter-owner, Christopher Jones, fell sick. He would
die in March 1623. By 1624, the Mayflower, which apparently had not
been used since October 1621, was sitting in ruins in the river Thames.
appraised for a lowly £128. Undoubtedly the ship was sold off as
scrap lumber.

the proprietor of premiumwoodcraft has visited the tavern where the
last supper was held in plymouth- now a beefeater inn!!

Also the steps down which the founding fathers descended
into the mayflower in plymouth harbour.

who could have predicted what would have followed from this humble
little ship and her human flotsam and jetsamwould lead to a modern
day superpower
whose supremacy is threatened -longer term-only by rise the asian tiger
economies