T H E   M A Y F L O W E R   I I

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Sight: #27

Highlights: Cool recreation of the original Mayflower, minus the rats and the gum bleeding scurvy.

Lowlights: It's not the original!!!

Address: State Pier on Cape Cod Bay, Plymouth, MA

Hours: 9am to 5pm, tickets sold until 4:45pm

Admission: $8 - adult, $6 - children (6-12), under 6 years - free

Access: By foot only, not wheelchair accessible.

Link: Official Website

Rating:

(5 max)

Docked at State Pier in Plymouth, MA you'll find The Mayflower II. From a distance she's certainly an impressive sight. Can you imagine sailing across the Atlantic on such a ship, sharing cramped space with more than 100 other passengers for 65 straight days on the high seas?

As I approach the ship the flower carving that's prominently affixed to the stern grows larger and larger. Oh, I get it, I guess that's what a mayflower must look like. So the ship is named after an actual flower. To be honest I never really made the connection, probably because I'm not at all into flowers. If they called it The Rose, or perhaps The Dandelion, I sure I would have made the connection long ago.

The rigging looks like a tangle of randomly placed ropes. Thank goodness I don't have to attend to its sails, I have trouble untangling my garden hose, let alone something as complicated and critical as this.