The Mayflower II is currently undergoing a full-scale restoration at the DuPont Shipyard in Mystic, Connecticut. It’s a replica of the merchant ship that brought the Pilgrims first to Provincetown and then to Plymouth in 1620 - a now-historic event that was completely unremarkable at the time. “This is just cargo. The only good thing about this cargo is it was self-loading cargo,” said Whit Perry, Director of Maritime Preservation at Plimoth Plantation. The original Mayflower was sold for scrap in 1624. Many years later, a man named Warwick Charlton was returning to England after serving in World War Two, and he began reading “Of Plimoth Plantation” by William Bradford, the definitive account of the Pilgrims. “He formed a private company to build this reproduction and give it as a gift of appreciation to America for America’s help during World War Two,” said Perry. There are no surviving plans for the original Mayflower, so historians relied on their general knowledge of vessels from