Mayflower II emerging from her shelter at the shipyard at Mystic Seaport, July 2019. anniversary celebrations commemorating the Pilgrims’ historic voyage in 1620. Mayflower II is owned by the living history museum Plimoth Plantation, which displays the vessel in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts. The original Mayflower sailed back to England in April of 1621, where it was later sold in ruins and most likely broken up. Mayflower II was designed by MITtrained naval architect William Avery Baker for Plimoth Plantation. The ship is a full-scale reproduction of the original Mayflower and was built in 1955–57 in Brixham, England. The details of the ship, from the solid oak timbers and tarred hemp rigging, to the wood and horn lanterns and hand-colored maps, were carefully re-created to give visitors a sense of what the original 17th-century vessel was like. The ship was a gift to the American people from the people of Great Britain in honor of the friendships formed during World War II. Since its arrival in 1957, Mayflower II has been an educational exhibit at the museum in Plymouth. The launch ceremony at Mystic Seaport will be held in the shipyard at 2pm and will be open to museum visitors. Historian and author Nathaniel Philbrick will deliver a keynote address and the British Consul General in Boston, Harriet Cross, will christen the ship. The process will be very similar to the launch of the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan in 2013.
Mayflower II will be rolled out onto a platform on the yard’s shiplift. At a designated signal, the platform will slowly lower the ship into the water until she floats in the Mystic River. In July, Mayflower Sails 2020 announced the ship would come to Boston for a free maritime festival in the Charlestown Navy Yard, 14–19 May 2020. Mayflower II will return to its berth in historic Plymouth Harbor after the event. From her launch in September until her departure from Mystic Seaport next the spring, ship restoration work will continue and the rigging will be installed. Leading up to the ship’s homecoming, several major events are planned celebrating Mayflower II’s restoration; the public is encouraged to attend. Visit www.sailingmayflower.org and follow along with @officialmayflower on social media to view restoration videos and stay up-to-date on progress and plans. (Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; www.mysticseaport.org. Plimoth Plantation, 137 Warren Avenue, Plymouth, MA 02360;Ph. 508 746-1622; www.plimoth.org) … This summer, the Sparkman & Stephens tug Kit Jones made her final voyage—overland—to her new home in Darien, Georgia. Sea History reported on the historic tug in spring 2016 (Historic Ships on a Lee Shore: “Kit Jones is Waiting for You, Sea History 154, p. 34–46). The 60-foot vessel was built on the privately owned Sapelo Island in
Kit Jones, 1939
kit jones photos courtesy friends of the kit jones
photo by andy price, mystic seaport
After nearly three years out of the water for a multi-million dollar restoration, the 62-year-old Mayflower II will be relaunched from the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport Museum in a public ceremony on Saturday, 7 September. The ship will remain at Mystic until spring 2020, when she will depart in time to participate in the 400th
nearly sank the tug, the University of Mississippi had her hauled and stored at a Biloxi boatyard. There she stayed, deteriorating, until a group of concerned citizens recognized her historic value and started the grassroots effort to save her. Happily, things are now looking up for Kit Jones. In late June she made the 544-mile highway drive from Biloxi to Darien, Georgia. The road trip required a great deal of preparation: the cabin and pilot house were removed to
Kit Jones, on the road in 2019
Georgia for tycoon R. J. Reynolds in 1938– 39 to ferry guests and supplies to the island. During World War II, the tug was commissioned as a US Coast Guard fireboat. She returned to her former service ferrying back and forth to Sapelo Island but was later adapted as a research vessel for what would be more than a fifty-year career supporting a variety of marine research projects for the University of Georgia Marine Institute and University of Mississippi. After Hurricane Katrina, which capsized and
stay within vehicle-height requirements, and the engine, generators, hydraulics, and tanks—none of which were original to the boat—were removed to reduce the weight of the hull. The cabin was loaded onto a separate truck for transport to Darien. Maxine Woolsey, coordinator of Mississippi operations for the Friends of the Kit Jones group, followed the Russell Marine Transport team the entire way from Biloxi (continued on page 50
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