By Bob Walsh
Back in the prehistoric days (before the internet and cell phones) the people of Great Britain had a ship built, the Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. That vessel is now over 50 years old and is suffering from the maladies of wooden sailing ships, rot and beetles.
Over the next 2 ½ years the people at the Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut will do a complete overhaul of the 106 foot long vessel. The project will cost about $7.5 million. So far over $7 million has been raised. They want to get about $12 million total, in order to have a fully funded maintenance program once the work is complete. The ship will have to be about 50% rebuilt.
They estimate that about 25 million people have boarded this ship to get some modest feel for what it must have been like on board for the settlers.
They expect to have her ready to sail by 2019, a full year ahead of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World.
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