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No sooner installed at my hotel by Sutton Harbour, I set off on foot for the Mayflower Museum.

Once I had passed the National Marine Aquarium, just four minutes away and the next day to be the main focus of my visit to Plymouth, I was to cross the harbour entrance by a swing footbridge – the gate to which swung closed just as I arrived at it …

… in order to let this through into the harbour.

But I didn’t have to wait long and, two blustery and stormy minutes later, (taking photos from the swing bridge was impossible in the circumstances) I arrived at the museum.

The visit started at the top floor.

It has quite recently been redone to draw more attention to the original peoples in the US who were displaced or who died as a result of missions like that of the Mayflower. The focus is on, but not exclusively, the Wampanoag people.

These are some of the Wampanoag descendants.

These pivoting blocks show faces and, on the back, names and dates of Mayflower descendants.

There was a short film on the sufferings of some of the native people.

The next floor down, the second (in British parlance), is about the actual voyage of the Mayflower. I hadn’t realised before that she started off in tandem with the Speedwell, which carried migrants from the Netherlands. The Speedwell soon became unseaworthy, so both turned back, and in due course the Mayflower took the Dutch refugees as well. 102 passengers plus crew, in a ship only twice the length of a modern-day coach.

The stories of some are featured. Those, and even the names, of others are unknown.

Of necessity the story is told almost entirely in text, interestingly so, and there is much to keep children occupied while parents are reading. – though I had the place almost to myself that day.

The first floor recounts commemorations of the voyage.

(Nancy Astor again, featuring on a timeline.)

1920

A replica, Mayflower II, was built in 1957. Here is a fascinating contemporary black and white film, 8’37”, about it.

Just outside the museum are the Mayflower Steps. THe original steps have long gone.

This curious creature is the Leviathan, also known locally as the ‘Barbican Prawn’. (The Citadel, or Barbican, is nearby.)

I decided to return to my hotel the long way, that is to walk round Sutton Harbour rather than use the swing footbridge. The weather seemed to have settled down for a while. I found myself on the Mayflower Trail for three of its dozen or so points.

At one point the sun burst through the grey gloom.

It was VERY low!

And was near to setting.

Which it did shortly after I got back to my room.