Pilgrim, Maybe It Should Be Called Harwich Rock
Another English Town Tries to Claim the Mayflower, and Tourism, From Plymouth
HARWICH, England—A disagreement between two sleepy English seaside towns could make a splash across the Atlantic: by forcing a rewrite of American history.
For 393 years, the southwest England town of Plymouth has been celebrated as the last port of call of the Mayflower before the ship carried the first Pilgrim settlers to what was to become the United States of America. But that is only part of the story.
Plymouth's fame has come at the expense of this tiny town to the northeast of London. The reason: The Mayflower was built and originally set sail from here before making an unscheduled stop at Plymouth. Now, after nearly four centuries, Harwich wants a slice of the historical action. It is building a $3.3 million replica of the Mayflower to send back across the Atlantic.
The project, spearheaded by retired oil executive Andrew March, is part of Harwich's campaign to reclaim its lost heritage by 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's original journey. Using 400 tons of English oak and an army of young shipbuilders, Mr. March hopes to launch Harwich, pop. 15,000, onto the world stage.
"We are planning to get a little bit of our share of history," says Mr. March. "Harwich was the probable birthplace of the Mayflower," he adds.
Harwich, on the east coast of Britain and with a wet and windy climate, struggles to attract tourists. Currently, its biggest draw is an 800-year-old oak tree known as "Old Knobbley," inconveniently located 10 miles from the town center.
The Mayflower
But Harwich's plans are discomfiting Plymouth, equally out of the way on the southwest shoreline of the U.K. The famous ship is crucial to the town's self image: its soccer team is nicknamed "the Pilgrims." Its mascot is known as "Pilgrim Pete." Hotels, parking lots and swimming pools bear the Mayflower's name. The Mayflower steps, where the ship is said to have set sail, attracts U.S. tourists on day trips from London.
Plymouth has its own ambitious anniversary campaign in the works—a party so big that it has already invited the U.S. president, whoever that happens to be in 2020. All living ex-Presidents are to be invited. So are members of the British royal family.
The city recently sent a delegation to Plymouth, Mass., to discuss plans for the anniversary. Amanda Lumley, chief executive of Destination Plymouth, which aims to attract tourists to the city, was on the trip. She says there are 52 Plymouths in the world, with 24 in the U.S. "How many Harwiches are there?" Ms. Lumley asks. (According to U.S. Census data, there are three Harwiches in the U.S., all of them in Massachusetts).
The face-off is the result of some planks in the Mayflower's history that have never quite been nailed down.
On Sept. 6, 1620, the Mayflower "loosed from Plymouth, having been kindly entertained and courteously used by divers[e] friends there dwelling," according to a commemorative plaque on the harborside in Plymouth.
But Harwich claims that the Mayflower's connection to Plymouth is an accident of circumstance and geography. Locals here contend that the Mayflower stopped in Plymouth only because the Speedwell—a smaller ship also carrying Pilgrims to the New World—sprang a leak 200 miles off the English coast, forcing it to return to Plymouth, the nearest port.
Conspiracy theorists in both Plymouth and Harwich say the Speedwell's captain sabotaged his ship because he didn't think it could make it across the Atlantic. A rumor popular among Plymouth residents, but with little basis in historical fact—speculates the crew heard of Plymouth's reputation for hospitality and insisted on remaining in England.
"I wouldn't blame them for coming back here, it's quite good fun when it's not raining," says Oliver Betts, 27, who lives in Plymouth.
Whatever the cause, had the Speedwell not started leaking, Harwich, not Plymouth, would be remembered as the home of the Mayflower.
To capitalize on this, Mr. March is employing local youngsters and using donations from benefactors to help rebuild the Mayflower. A charity—the Harwich Mayflower Project—has been set up to oversee the building of the replica and to promote Harwich's case in the U.K. and the U.S.
Officials say work on the ship will begin within six months and are confident it will be finished by 2016, ready for a few trial voyages before the big crossing in 2020. Shipbuilders who will help construct the replica are already well versed in Harwich's version of history.
"Plymouth was just a stop-off, that's all it was," says Miles Holdsworth, 17.
By the end of 2013, Mr. March says he will have raised more than £500,000 ($770,000) to build the replica. The project receives donations from individuals, but hopes to raise most of its capital from corporate sponsors—a $75,000 donation will buy a 12-inch brass plaque embedded on the replica Mayflower's main deck, plus the chance to send staff on the 400th anniversary voyage.
Mr. March points to local property records showing that the Mayflower's captain, Christopher Jones, and many crew members came from Harwich and surrounding areas. Journals written by the first settlers and reproduced online also point to the Harwich roots of Capt. Jones and the Mayflower.
A plaque in Plymouth, England, listing the passengers on the Mayflower even supports the Harwich claim: "John Alden, cooper of Harwich, the first to step ashore," it states.
The evidence is strong—but not strong enough to make Plymouth throw in the towel.
"Well, I wasn't aware that Harwich had such a great claim to the history," says Chris Robinson, a Plymouth historian who has written extensively about his city's history. "Clearly the indications are—but there is no proof—that the Mayflower was constructed in Harwich. And Christopher Jones was a Harwich man. But the pilgrims didn't call in there. They did call into Plymouth."
One thing that hasn't yet crossed the Atlantic is the hostility between the two English towns.
Richard Pickering, who for 26 years has played a Pilgrim settler in Plimoth Plantation, a historical re-creation of the first settlers' community in Plymouth, Mass., says it doesn't matter where the Mayflower came from, just what it meant to America. "I have very little understanding of the Mayflower's history before it came to America," he says.
