TILLER OF MAYFLOWER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 11 (Supplement)

TILLER OF MAYFLOWER.

RELIC OF PILGRIM SHIP.

IK A DEVONSHIRE COLLECTION

TRADITIONS AND THEORIES.

(By FRED ALLEN.)

There seems some foundation for the statement that after the Mayflower returned to England and was broken up several ribe of the Pilgrim ship were used in the construction of a roadside inn. Whether this be fact or fiction none can definitely say, but during a pilgrimage of New Englanders made in 1890 to visit old shrines at Scorooby and Rotterdam, the following information was gleaned. I give it for what it is worth as a footnote to the chronicles of the first ship to land immigrants on the coasts of New England. One day I found myself in Crediton, Devonshire. There I met a gentleman who asked me if I knew that the "dress tiller of the original Mayflower" was in the possession of a local collector of black oak articles. An introduction followed and 1 was allowed to examine the interesting objects that had been assembled by the Devonshire antiquarian. I was permitted to fetch out the tiller, place it on the back of two rustic chairs and take its picture. I A solid piece of black oak has been carved to represent twisted rope at one end. A floral carving on the squared side shows clearly the letters of the name Mayflower. This ornate lever was discovered in a pile of wreckage. on the coast of the seaside town of Exmouth about twelve miles below Exeter. The boat to which it belonged had for many years lain on the beach, gradually falling into complete disintegration. I made several journeys to the town anil talked with a number of old salts, who had the stories of the place at their tongue's end. They all had a tradition of a boat that was built as successor to the original Mayflower, and that ultimately fell to ruin on their coast further back than the oldest could remember. | This much then we knew: A boat

broke up on tlie Devon coast somewhere about 1800. It was named Mayflower, and according to legend among seafaring men of that district succeeded the historic vessel that sailed on her first voyage to America in September, 1620, and left the New World for Plymouth the following April. How much longer she was in commission and able to do local voyages, we da not know, but if we put the limit of use at fifty years, that would bring ue to the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Then granting a few years' delay before a new boat was built and equipped we arrive at the approximate date 1700. Allowing a hun- ! dred years of life in local waters, and assuming the new boat was broken up in turn somewhere about 1800, it does not seem at all unreasonable to conclude that we have in this relic of carveu black oak not only the dress tiller of the second Mayflower, but also the one actually used during the epic voyage of 1020. It would seem entirely likely that a little-used and well-preservied portion of the old boat that fell to decay on these shores shoijjd be utilised in the new, especially if it had immemorial associations such as the original Mayflower had. I