by Gail Hennessey

Created on: July 22, 2009   Last Updated: July 24, 2009

What Ever Happened to the Mayflower?

Ever wonder what became of the Mayflower, the ship which took 102 Pilgrims over the Atlantic to North America in 1620? If you are expecting to find it docked to some pier, or in a museum, you'd be wrong. That's because the Mayflower most likely ended up as scrap wood and may have ended up in an old Quaker Barn in Great Britain!

It was common practice many years ago in England to use unseaworthy ships' timber to build things. Dutch Elm disease had killed many of the trees of 17th century Great Britain and lumber was very scare. To preserve the number of oak tress from being cut for lumber, wood was priced quite high by the government, making any available timber, such as that in old ships, very desirable. Since the Mayflower wasn't an important ship to the people of Great Britain, this is the fate that most likely happened to the Pilgrim's ship.

In the early 1900s, a Quaker Historian , named Rendel Harris, found a document stating that the Mayflower had been determined to be unseaworthy in 1624. The ship's owners then sold the oak ship for its timber to make some money. Then, while attending a funeral at the Quaker Meeting House in Jordans, England, Harris heard someone say the barn had been built from wood of the Mayflower. That got Harris hunting through documents such as wills and deeds to try and find out whether this was true.

The age of the barn's timber dates back to the time of the Mayflower and the barn was said to have been built by one of the owner's of the Mayflower. If you go to the barn, you will notice that the main beam in the barn has a huge crack in it, just like the Mayflower got on its maiden voyage during a bad storm. The size and weight of the hull used in the barn's construction matches that of the Mayflower and at one time, the letters ER HAR were evident, perhaps, referring to Mayflower, Harwich, the ship's home port.

One thing is certain, if you tilt your head upside down, you can see that a hull of a ship was used to build the roof of the barn...whether it was the Mayflower, that can't be certain.

Another interesting piece of history. Outside the Quaker Meeting House in Jordans, England, is a cemetery. It is here you will find the resting place of William Penn, founder of the Pennsylvania colony!

Interesting trivia about William Penn. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed both William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, honorary citizens of the United States!

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