This has been another one of those weeks when we both realized the joy of having real, true friends who always enjoy some of the hobbies and subjects we love to share with other people in our area.
We both have come to realize over the last 20 or so years one never knows when items or articles of past history suddenly show up in many strange and unpredictable ways.
One of our close friends loves to go to estate auctions all over New England and shares many of his finds on history, stories and photos of ships of the past, and old newspaper items of interest in Maine and our area with the both of us.
He often stops by and we have a delightful time talking over items of interest to our area. He often says to us, ‘Here is an item of interest that you may want to share with the area people in one of your newspaper columns.’
In January he went to an estate auction Down East. He ended up buying several items of interest. One item was a very old pine storage chest with beautiful old strap hinges.
It was beautifully dove-tailed and grain-painted and, as he told us, it was in very fine shape for its age, as it dates to the 1850s. The only thing was, the chest was locked and no one knew where the key was, so the auctioneer said, ‘I am selling this chest as is, where is.’
Our friend loves to work on old locks and repair them, so he bid on the item and came away with it at a low price. Everyone knows that the price of old furniture is down for the past three years.
When he got his item back home, he started to work off and on to see if he could open the old chest. After about three or four days, he finally got the lock on the chest to open. There were many items of interest in the old chest. He found a few items which he knew would be items of interest to us. He came down the other day and gave us some of these items.
One item was the April 1974 issue of Maine Antique Digest, price 50 cents. A year’s subscription was only $5. What a difference in prices from then to now.
One item shown in the Antique Digest was an oil painting by Antonio Jacobson of a sailing ship in a storm. It sold for $2,900. In today’s market it would go for $30,000 to $40,000. The auctioneer was Tom Prindall.
The next item he gave us was a stack of over 80 pages of stories written in old newspapers of Maine-built ships and some of their travels around the world. We both find reading these old newspaper items very interesting and we hope to share some of them with our readers.
Now for the rest of the article. Over the years we both have met some local people who often say they are descendants of people who came over on the ship Mayflower, and we also belong to the Mayflower Society. We would like to share one of these newspaper items with our readers.
The writer of this particular article explains that during the era of the Mayflower, there were no cameras. However, the accompanying picture, according to the Mirror of London, is considered to be the nearest replica of the Mayflower that is possible to obtain.
This ship was built in England in 1588. It was 234 tons and would carry about 300 tons of cargo. For those days she was a fair-size ocean carrier.
In 1609, Captain Christopher Jones purchased some shares of this ship and was her master until he died in 1622.
The name Christopher seems to have been a popular name for seamen in those days. We have Christopher Jones of the Mayflower, Christopher Newport of the Susan ‘Constant’ Jamestown, and then the greatest Roman of them all, Captain Christopher Columbus of the Santa Maria.
For 11 years Jones made voyages to the European ports, and then in 1620 he arrived in England from Bordeaux, France with a cargo of wine. Realizing how meticulous shipmasters are about those things, it is safe to assume that Jones delivered every drop of his cargo of wine to the rightful owners.
It was then he charted his ship to ferry emigrants to Northern Virginia. He knew that those people wanted to live in a land where they could worship God in their own sweet way and also take all of the land that they wanted and never see a tax collector.
There is no doubt but his real reason was to make a fast buck for himself and his owners. It would be interesting to know just what sort of a charter that he had, to sail an uncharted ocean and deliver her passengers on a strange shore.
The Mayflower finally sailed from Plymouth, England, Sept. 6, 1620 and arrived at Cape Cod Nov. 9, 1620, making the passage in 64 days.
Many years later, when the famous Black Ball Line of fast sailing ships were operating from New York to England, many of their Western crossings were longer. From New York to England, 15 days was an average passage, but coming west was a different story.
As many old seamen used to say, from England to America it is all uphill, owing to the brave westerly winds and the set of the currents, whereas going east or from New York to England, it is all downhill.
One subject of interest was one of the mates aboard the Mayflower was a seaman aboard the little ship Virginia later.
When the Virginia sailed from Popham Beach to Virginia, we must emphasize the fact that Jones performed an outstanding feat, with an overcrowded ship on an uncharted coast. He must have thoroughly learned the art of the sea and practiced it most skillfully on this memorable voyage.
The Mayflower ended her days on the riverbank at Rotherhithe, England in 1624 at the age of 36.
It has also been very interesting to learn that the descendants of the Mayflower came north and settled here in Maine and even in the Twin Villages area. We have carried on delightful conversations with these men and women who claim to be descendants of the people who came over on the Mayflower and who have traced their genealogy back to their ancestors and relatives in England.
We have to say these men and women are a strong group of American people who strongly believe in their religious freedom and way of life.
Here again, we both have to say, just take time and look around the Twin Villages and see all the religious denominations of churches that are all doing well and have good attendance each service and all work together to help benefit our community as a whole. In many ways we are still carrying on our ancestors’ teachings of religious freedom and working together to help our neighbor.
In a few days we all will in some way take a part in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, either by wearing some green or just going out to enjoy an old-fashioned corned beef and boiled dinner. Some may also enjoy a glass of green beer. Whatever we do, may you all enjoy St. Patrick’s Day.
