![]() No! No women.’ Thousands that had applied were thus disappointed.ĭespite this narrow mindedness, lots of positivity was whipped up by the press. They talk back and you can’t handle them. There was no place for ‘glamour pusses’, he said: ‘in those days, women were chattels. But his views on women were antiquated to say the least. Alan Villiers had taken on the role of captain as a greatly experienced sailor and author of naval themed memoirs, an understandable choice. A stranger departure from the historical record, and not one that could be viewed as especially modern, was the banning of women passengers or crew. As the Times put it, ‘The re-enaction… beset by anachronisms, the modern mingling with the Jacobean at every turn.’ Newsreel, cameras and television ‘emphasized’ that ‘modern touch’. A ship’s radio, for example, was required by law, as were inflatable rubber life-rafts. Indeed, total historical accuracy is never truly possible – and the Mayflower II had its modern quirks. Some of the crew also dressed up in ‘period’ costume – the ‘black Pilgrims’ hats, sober suits and buckled shoes’ commonly believed (if not necessarily accurately) to be what the Puritan settlers wore at the time. A golden ‘loving cup’ was also used to toast the voyage, before being thrown into the sea for a hardy swimmer to retrieve. Yeomans, the Vicar of Brixham, with added sea-based hymns and a prayer from the inauguration speech of Abraham Lincoln. A short religious service was held, in this case carried out by Reverend H.T. When the ship was launched in Brixham in September 1956, 17 th century procedures were followed. Furniture on board the ship was also designed from examples surviving from the period. Original shipwrights’ tools of a similar design to the 17 th century were used – though there were some electrical drills and saws in action too. There was a striving for a sense of historical accuracy in other ways. When Charlton found out about Baker’s designs, and Plimoth Plantation’s desire to use them to build a replica, a new relationship was forged between all three. ![]() Using a varied historical approach, he pieced together the scant information about the Mayflower in Pilgrim documents like Bradford’s History and Mourt’s Relation (1622), and added details from contemporary paintings and descriptions of other ships, such as in Walter Raleigh’s Judicious and Select Essays and Observations (1650). Baker, an American naval architect, had already undertaken five years of research into what the Mayflower may have looked like. ![]() Upham’s had been building wooden ships for more than 150 years. JWA Upham Ltd’s shipyard in Brixham, in Devon, was chosen as the place to construct the vessel. The main source of income, however, was sponsored ‘treasure chests’ filled with examples of British craftmanship (carried on board the ship and sold in the USA at the New York exhibition). Companies across Britain that caught the Mayflower II bug gave materials and products – their generosity then rewarded with exposure in magazines and the press. Rather than launching a public appeal for funds, however, financing came from commerce and industry. In 1954, Charlton was put in touch with Felix Fenston – a wealthy London property owner and keen amateur yachtsman – who put up the initial £500 to get the Mayflower Project underway. When the voyage was completed, and an exhibition in New York wrapped up, the ship was to be donated to the Plimoth Plantation (a ‘living village’ near the site of the original colony, created in 1947).Ĭharlton told his public relations partner, John Lowe, and the two began to drum up support around the high society of London, from meeting Ambassador Winthrop Aldrich at the House of Commons to Lord Mountbatten in the Albert Hall. ‘Something more permanent yet less official was needed’, Charlton remembered, ‘some measure or plan that would perhaps link the hearts and minds of the peoples and not merely the governmental parties’. He apparently got the idea to build a replica of the Mayflower as a symbol of Anglo-American good-feeling after coming across a copy of William Bradford’s 17 th century History of Plymouth Plantation. ![]() In North Africa, he had served as a press officer to General Montgomery, alongside other Americans. The project was the brainchild of Warwick Charlton, an ambitious and erudite Fleet Street man who wanted to acknowledge the American contribution during the Second World War. This was the Mayflower II, a reconstruction of what the original ship may have looked like, and its retracing of an approximation of the voyage of the Pilgrims in the spring and summer of 1957. One of the boldest commemorations of the Mayflower, and not just in Britain but the USA too, happened in a non-anniversary year. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |