300-YEAR-OLD RELIC

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 20

300-YEAR-OLD RELIC

THE MAYFLOWER'S TILLER?

(By' Fred Allen.) (Copyright.). There seems some foundation for the statement that after, the Mayflower returned to England and was broken up several ribs of the Pilgrim ship wore used in the construction of a roadside inn. Whether this be fact or fiction none can definitely say, but during a pilgrimage of .New Euglahders made in 1890 to visit .old shrines at Scorroby 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 Creditfln, Devonshire. There I met a gentlemau 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 I 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" oft the back of two rustic chairs, and take, its picture. 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 tho 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, gradnally falling into com-: plete disintegration. ■" ' . I made several journeys to-the town, and 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 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 oii the Devon coast somewhere about 1800. It was named Mayflower, ana according to legend among* seafar-' ing men of that district, succeeded the historic vessel that sailed on1 her first voyage to America in September, 1620, and left, the New World fpr Plymouth: on the following 'April. How muchy longer she was in commissioji and able; to do local voyages, we,do mot know,! bu* if we put the limit.of use at fifty years, that .would bring us to the last quarter of the -seventeenth century. Then granting a few years' delay be-, fore, a new boatywas built and equipped, we arrive at the approximate date 1700.: Allowing a. hundred years •of life ifilocal waters, and assuming tho 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 carven black oak not only the dress tiller of the second 'Mayflower; but-also the one actually used durinothe epic voy/ige of 1620. 'It Avon]d seementirely likely that a littlo used and well-preserved portion of the old boat that fell to. decay, on these shores should, be utilised in the new, especially if it had immemorial associations such as the original -Mayflower had.