From Plymouth to the New World
Plymouth, U.K.
Travel offers the opportunity to immerse yourself in historical places and imagine the events that have taken place there over the centuries. One of my favourites is a corner of England with a long, watery history and an incomparable vantage point that allowed Francis Drake to alert the country to its imminent invasion by the Spanish in 1588.
This year, another invasion was expected – this time from those who speak the same language. As one of their number exclaimed to me with characteristic American enthusiasm when we were both studying the plaques on the quayside walls of Britain’s Ocean City:
“So much history! If it weren’t for these dudes setting off from here, I wouldn’t be who I am now.”
And some pretty cool dudes have played a part in the city’s history.
Four hundred years ago this year, The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth in Devon to the New World to establish a colony of puritan dudes. The eagerly anticipated anniversary celebrations will be severely affected by the current situation – devastating for the hundreds of people who have been working tirelessly over the past few years to create an innovative programme of events. But while we watch and wait for up-to-date information we can still admire the heroes that Plymouth has launched on the world. Those who sailed on The Mayflower helped forge an enterprising nation, as one of them, William Bradford, recorded later in life:
“But them a place God did provide,
In wilderness, and them did guide
Unto the American shore,
Where they made way for many more...”
More than 130 passengers and crew spent 64 days on a turbulent sea amid winter storms on a ship 80 feet long and 24 wide, their only playlist the sound of howling wind and creaking timbers. During the treacherous voyage one of the women gave birth to a son. She named him Oceanus, which I think shows great strength of character, considering most boys at the time were called Thomas or John. There are now at least 30 million descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Intrepid explorers continued to set forth from Plymouth on voyages of discovery. 150 years afterwards, naval dude James Cook, the spirit of the Enlightenment filling the sails of the Endeavour, embarked on a mission to observe the transit of Venus. As a side hustle, he charted New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, which came in very handy eighteen years later when America had shown Britain the exit and options for convicts had been reduced to hulks on the Thames.
Imperial dude Napoleon also embarked on a new life from Plymouth, although not the one he was hoping for. After the battle of Waterloo in 1815 he decided to try his luck in America, as so many before him. The British thought this might not turn out well, so while they tried to work out what to do with this troublesome Frenchie, they parked him in Plymouth harbour. He was greeted like a rock star by the locals who launched every small vessel they could find to try and catch a glimpse of the infamous celebrity on the Bellerophon.
Already spooked enough by the French Revolution, the British decided to settle Napoleon on a piece of real estate in the middle of the Atlantic, where the former Emperor took up gardening.
A few years later, scientific dude Charles Darwin set sail from Plymouth on The Beagle. He made himself very unpopular when he eventually reported his discoveries nearly thirty years later, which hints at how he expected his theories to be greeted. As the apocryphal story of the bishop’s wife goes: ‘My dear, let us hope it is not true; but, if it is true, let us hope it will not become generally known.’
Plymouth’s naval and cultural history has been brought under one roof at The Box , including a gallery on ‘100 Journeys’. I hope you will eventually be able to make your own journey there.