ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Extraordinary, iconic, lethal-- these incredible ships have told our story for the past 400 years and defined what it means to be part of our island nation.

[gunshot] I'm Rob Bell.

And in this series, I'll be exploring Britain's greatest ships.

This time, I discover the extraordinary story of the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims to the new world.

The story of her voyage is one of hardship, desperation, and survival against the odds.

I mean, this is literally life or death.

[gunshot] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And one which ultimately leads to the birth of the United States of America.

[waves crashing] [arousing music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL: Here at the Mystic Shipyard in Connecticut, is a replica of the ship that brought the first Pilgrims to the USA, the Mayflower II.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Fully seagoing and constructed to the same scale as the original, this British-built vessel brought back to life one of the most important ships in American history.

But right now, it's in dry dock, undergoing extensive restorations to be ready for 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's fateful voyage to America.

The Mayflower is what's called a carrack, a type of merchant sailing ship that first appeared in the 14th century.

And it's surprisingly small at just 106 feet long and 25 feet wide.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): It's a marvel of craftsmanship built using traditional methods.

But it's tried and tested and capable of braving the seas and even the oceans.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Little is known about the early life of the original Mayflower, but we do know that her first recorded voyage almost ends in disaster.

[waves lapping] August 1609, the Mayflower and her skipper, Master Christopher Jones, have been hired to transport a cargo of goods from London to Norway.

But during the voyage, the Mayflower encounters a ferocious storm in the North Sea.

[stirring music] [waves crashing] To make matters worse, she's overloaded and sitting low in the water.

The fierce weather threatens to swamp the Mayflower, and Jones takes desperate action to try and save his floundering ship.

He dumps most of his cargo overboard to lighten the load.

[water splashes] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The ship is saved, but at a cost.

Master Jones is taken to court to recover the losses from the jettisoned cargo.

For the next 10 years, he appears to avoid taking to the high seas in the Mayflower.

But for reasons unknown, a decade later, the skipper agrees to gamble his ship on a far more high-risk proposition.

It's a decision that will ultimately change the world.

ROB BELL: In early 1620, he's approached by a group of men who want to charter his ship for a desperate mission.

Their bid to flee across the Atlantic to the new world will push the Mayflower and her crew to their very limits.

[frightening music] [rumbling] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The men who hire the Mayflower are from a group of religious separatists who are now known as the Pilgrims, and they are fleeing the wrath of the Church of England.

[bell tolls] LEA FILSON: The Pilgrims just didn't feel that they should have to follow the rules of someone else's church.

And so as a result, they were persecuted.

In some cases, their homes were destroyed.

[flames crackling] In some cases, they were jailed.

[whip swooshes] They were made to feel that if they stayed, it would be a very, very dangerous situation.

So they felt it was time to try and escape.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In 1609, the Pilgrims seek refuge in the Netherlands, where they are allowed to practice their religion in peace.

But life in their adopted Dutch home isn't peaceful for long.

Spain was starting to threaten the Netherlands.

And they were very, very afraid that if Spain did invade in the Netherlands, they would be persecuted again.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The Pilgrims believe that the only place they'll be able to practice their religion without fear of persecution is in the New World.

But in the early 17th century, attempting to colonize America is fraught with danger.

England's existing colonies are not faring well.

At Jamestown, barely 20% of the population are still alive, and all the inhabitants at Roanoke have vanished without trace.

ROB BELL: Despite these risks, the puritan Pilgrims feel that they have no choice but to colonize the New World.

[arousing music] ♪ ♪ In July 1620, The Mayflower departs London for the New World.

The crew of The Mayflower have little idea that on the voyage ahead, they'll face sabotage, attempted mutiny, and death.

[WAVES LAPPING, RAIN PATTERING, RUMBLING] [somber music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In 1620, sailing to North Americas from Europe was about as dangerous as flying an Apollo rocket to the moon.

The 3,000-mile stretch of the Atlantic Ocean was a formidable obstacle where unpredictable weather and currents could easily wreck a wooden ship.

And reports of vessels vanishing without a trace were frighteningly common.

[frightening music] [water bubbling] [waves crashing] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But one group desperate enough to cross these dangerous waters are the Pilgrims, religious dissidents fleeing persecution in England.

They want to colonize America, where they hope to establish a new home.

SUE ALLAN: Of course, the Pilgrims couldn't just pitch up in America and start a colony.

They needed permission.

And the permission had been granted in 1606 by King James for colonies to be set up in the New World in Virginia.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In 1620, the territory of Virginia stretches from what is now New Jersey down to Cape Fear in the Carolinas.

The King grants assent for the Pilgrims to establish a colony in the northernmost part of the territory, not far from where New York City is today.

With permission in place, the Pilgrims need to borrow money to fund the expedition.

And this loan comes with strings attached.

First, they'll have to work for free for seven years to repay it.

And secondly, they'll have to take outsiders with them to the New World.

SUE ALLAN: Unknown to our Pilgrims, other colonists had been advertised for, attracted to go to the New World.

And these were, let's say, economic migrants termed strangers, because they weren't of the same religious persuasion.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): With permission and funding in place, the Pilgrims hire Master Christopher Jones and his ship, The Mayflower, to take them to the new world.

They also purchase a second ship for the voyage, the Speedwell.

The Speedwell is a pinnace, a smaller type of merchant ship able to carry 60 tons.

She will transport the Pilgrims from Holland to England.

[motor whirring] The plan is for both ships, crammed full of passengers, to leave the south coast of England, head across the Atlantic, and arrive at the mouth of the Hudson River before the end of summer.

ROB BELL: When they do leave Southampton on the 5th of August, they barely make it 100 miles before the Speedwell springs a serious leak.

[somber music] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): They're forced to pull into Dartmouth harbor to carry out urgent repairs.

ROB BELL: The delays caused by the repairs are putting the entire endeavor in serious jeopardy.

They only have a narrow fair weather window in early summer before the ferocious Atlantic storms sweep in through September.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Much of what we know about the Mayflower's voyage comes from a journal written by one of the Pilgrim's leaders, William Bradford.

He's frustrated with the Speedwell.

"She is as open and leaky as a sieve, and there was a board that a man might have pulled off with his fingers."

In late August, another attempt is made.

ROB BELL: At this time, 300 miles in, the Speedwell starts taking on water again.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And Bradford suspects sabotage.

[stirring music] ♪ ♪ PETER ARENSTAM: There's speculation the crew had got cold feet, that they decided that they didn't want to make that crossing and were trying to figure out a way to get out of their contract.

The crew had put in masts that were too large for the ship, which, if you think about a mast being stuck down through the hull, it acts like a giant lever when the pressure of the sails is on the ship.

Too much pressure will work those seams open on the hull and allow the ship to leak badly.

[water bubbling] At that point, they decide this boat is not worth the extra time and expense it's going to take to fix.

Let's leave it behind and let's travel to the New World without it.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): This leaves the mission in a perilous state.

Many of the Speedwell's passengers are now crammed onto the Mayflower.

The odds of success seem slim at best.

But many on board have already sold their homes and most of their worldly possessions to start new lives in America.

They simply have no choice but to press on.

And so, with supplies diminished and with the weather turning against them, on the 6th of September, 1620, the Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, England, on her own, overloaded and two months behind schedule.

[arousing music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Christopher Jones's ship was designed to carry cargo, not passengers.

So what was life on the Mayflower like during its transatlantic voyage.

This main deck, the fossil and the poop deck up there, is where the Mayflower's crew of around 30 men would have lived and worked.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The crew might have been crammed onto this small area.

But below decks, conditions for the 102 colonists are far worse.

With the Mayflower's hold full of supplies and the main deck too dangerous for inexperienced sailors, the gun deck was the only safe place for passengers to be.

But just look at the dimensions of this space.

And with so many people crammed in, you can imagine what a hellish experience that must have been for them.

♪ ♪ The circumstances aboard ship are very damp, very unclean, and to be placed tween decks in cramped conditions.

And they are having to figure out how do we live in these shipboard circumstances.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But the Pilgrims are about to face a much bigger challenge.

The Mayflower has missed her fair weather window.

And by the time she reaches the mid-Atlantic, she's being battered by massive storms.

[waves crashing] [rumbling] ROB BELL: Sea sickness is rife on board.

And you can scarcely imagine the horror and the squalor of life below deck in these conditions.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): For some of the passengers, it becomes too much, and they head to the main deck, only to find themselves in mortal danger.

It's a decision that almost costs a young Pilgrim named John Howland his life.

John Howland is up on deck and is swept overboard into the sea.

And John Howland, in that churning sea, is able to grab onto one of the ropes, and they are able to pull him out that way more dead than alive.

And this is where one life is so critically important.

Had John Howland died in that transatlantic storm, we would have no Bush family.

We would have no Humphrey Bogarts.

We'd have no certain Roosevelts.

There are right now 2 and 1/2 million Americans living, descended from John Howland and his wife.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The storms are taking their toll on the ship itself, smashing and battering the hull of the Mayflower.

ROB BELL: For Master Christopher Jones braving these tempests in a heavily laden Mayflower must have brought back memories of when he almost lost the ship in a storm in the North Sea over a decade earlier.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And it isn't long before his worst fears are realized.

[water splashing] ROB BELL: In early October, a massive storm hammers the Mayflower and cracks one of her central beams.

I mean, just imagine the force it would take to break one of these.

Those on board fear that the ship is about to be torn apart and beg for Jones to turn around and head back to England.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And they're right.

One more big wave could break the Mayflower's back and sink her.

ROB BELL: The ship's carpenter knows that the Mayflower has been critically weakened, but doesn't have a piece of wood large enough on board to attempt to repair.

Out of desperation, he searches the ship's cargo hold and comes across something like this, a jackscrew.

The Pilgrims brought a jackscrew along with them to help them construct buildings once they arrived in the New World.

Now, it works very simply.

Let's lift this up.

When I turn this handle here and I crank that around, this metal platform here raises up.

So then as my timber here comes into contact with something above, and it exerts a pressure upwards.

So by wedging one end of the jackscrew against the deck, the carpenter could raise the broken beam back into place, which enabled him to fashion a repair that would allow the Mayflower to continue her voyage.

[ominous music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But it's painfully slow-going, with the Mayflower spending countless days riding the violent ocean, drifting wherever the currents take her.

ROB BELL: After a punishing 66 days at sea, land is finally sighted on the 9th of November, 1620.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): They've arrived in America.

ROB BELL: And miraculously, despite the storms and the squalid conditions, they've only been two deaths during the voyage and one birth.

A baby boy named Oceanus was born on board.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But the Mayflower's passengers are in bad shape.

After three months of being confined to her gun deck, many are now sick, and vital supplies such as food are running desperately low.

Any joy they might feel at the sight of land is to be short-lived.

Battling the storms has sent the Mayflower off course, and she's arrived off the coast of what is now Cape Cod in New England, 200 miles north of where they have permission to build their colony.

ROB BELL: Not only do they not have permission to settle here, but this area is also known to be home to tribes of Native Americans who have reason to be hostile to the English.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But the Mayflower is in no condition to brave another risky sea voyage.

ROB BELL: On the 11th of November, 1620, the Mayflower limps into Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod.

She's now trapped between deadly seas and aggressive tribes, with supplies and morale running dangerously low.

And then dark rumors begin spreading among the passengers on board.

[melancholic music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): One group on board, economic migrants, known as the Strangers, are becoming mutinous.

ROB BELL: Without a Royal Charter to settle this area, they feel that they should be released of all obligations, including their seven years of indentured servitude.

They consider themselves free men and threaten to seize the Mayflower to go wherever they please.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The other group of passengers, religious dissidents known as the Pilgrims, see this rebellion as leading to catastrophe for all.

And their solution to quell the unrest is nothing short of revolutionary.

SUE ALLAN: It was at this point that our Pilgrims got together and formed a document, the Mayflower Compact.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The original Mayflower Compact has been lost to history, but the Pilgrim diarist William Bradford recorded its contents.

It's a blueprint, if you like, of the way that they would live and conduct themselves, how they were to settle any disagreements, whereby the majority decision held.

The Mayflower Compact must surely be one of the most important documents in American history, because enshrined in that are the very first tentative moves towards democracy.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And it's on board the Mayflower that all 41 men, Pilgrim and Stranger alike, signed this historic document and avert the threat of mutiny.

Now the united colonists need to find somewhere to establish a home.

The shallow waters of Cape Cod are too risky to navigate in the Mayflower.

So the Pilgrims will need another kind of vessel to explore the New World.

PETER ARENSTAM: This is a reproduction 17th-century shallop.

It's very similar to the shallow that the Pilgrims brought with them on the Mayflower.

There were what I like to call the pickup truck of the 17th century.

They were multi-use vehicles.

You could use them for transportation for people.

You could carry cargo with them.

The shallop that they brought on the Mayflower was an entirely open boat, but it had a whole series of these kinds of benches running down the length.

You could row a shallop with six or eight men.

They used the shallop to explore the inner arm of the Cape when they were looking for a place to settle, and it was an important part of the Pilgrim story.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The shallop allows the Pilgrims to finally leave the Mayflower and begin exploring this strange new land.

ROB BELL: The classic image is that of them stepping ashore wearing tall hats, these large white collars, dressed mainly in black, almost like a group of people done up in their Sunday best.

But evidence recently discovered paints a very different picture.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Having undertaken this desperate voyage to flee religious persecution, the Pilgrims are ready to secure their future by any means necessary.

Bradford, in his journal, he describes men running out with their coats of mail on not too long after getting to Cape Cod.

So we know for sure this was here.

But we also have the complete armor light.

ROB BELL: Can we have a look at that?

DANIEL ROSEN: Of course, yeah, pick it up.

That weighs about-- It's got the back plate as well.

DANIEL ROSEN: Yeah.

So you've got tassets, which protect the thighs.

- Geez.

- You've got the breastplate.

And altogether, this weighs probably about 15 pounds.

ROB BELL: This is kind of heavy-duty equipment-- DANIEL ROSEN: Yeah.

--at the time that you wouldn't expected in full-out-- full-blown war.

So north of here, you had the French settling.

South of here in what's now New York, you had the Dutch.

Further South from there, all the way, almost the other Coast of America, you had the Spanish.

All of whom were saying, this is our land.

So get out.

So they expect to do also potentially have to fight with Native people.

Let's try it on here.

DANIEL ROSEN: Sure.

Right.

There you go.

That's on.

So you know, actually being in this as well, it does really give me a new perspective on the Pilgrims because, yes, they may have been religious, but they were coming over here, and they needed to protect themselves.

And they were willing to do so.

Absolutely.

This is-- I mean, this is literally life or death.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The Pilgrims came to the New World fully prepared if it came to a fight.

The most deadly weapon in their arsenal-- Fire!

[gunshots] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): --was the musket.

ROB BELL: This voyage West to the New World was all about survival.

And it wasn't long after the Pilgrims arrived that their muskets were used in anger in conflict.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In early December, an expedition party leaves the Mayflower on the shallop, unaware that they're about to have a close encounter with one of the Native tribes who inhabit this region.

[ominous music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ROB BELL: The Pilgrims come ashore near a village belonging to the Nauset people.

As they approach the settlement, they catch fleeting glimpses of people disappearing into the tree line.

But those figures don't stay hidden in the shadows for long.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): With darkness fast approaching, the expedition party is unable to make it back to the safety of the Mayflower, and they set up camp.

During the night, their sleep is repeatedly interrupted by eerie cries.

[eerie cries] The Nauset attack the encampment at first light with a hail of arrows.

The startled Pilgrims hastily grab their muskets and from the cover of their camp return fire.

[stirring music] [gunshots] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But this attack by the Nauset tribe isn't entirely unprovoked.

Darius Coombs, a leader of the Wampanoag people, another tribe native to this region, explains why.

A lot of people think that was the first time we ever seen Europeans here.

And that's not the case.

Six years prior, there was an English captain named Thomas Hunt that came down the coast and took 19 Wampanoag as slaves and went down the Nauset and took seven Nauset as slaves.

Probably not surprising that there was conflict.

DARIUS COOMBS: There was conflict.

There were musket balls fired.

There were arrows that fired.

Nobody got killed.

But it wasn't a pleasant sight.

[arousing music] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The Pilgrims retreat back to the relative safety of the Mayflower and must look elsewhere for a location to establish their colony.

But over a month of exploration proves fruitless.

And then winter arrives.

ROB BELL: They urgently now need to find a suitable location to establish their colony.

But the brutal New England weather is hampering exploration.

And there are only a few people fit enough to leave the ship in these conditions.

What they need is a miracle.

And during Christmas 1620, they get one.

[stirring music] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The weary exploration team arrive at an abandoned Native village.

It has everything they need to establish a colony.

Legend has it that the Pilgrims set ashore right by this boulder here.

Now, this location had already been given a name on the map by earlier explorers.

And coincidentally, that name is the same as the port from which the Pilgrims left England-- Plymouth.

♪ ♪ This boulder has become known as Plymouth Rock, and it's visited by thousands of people from all over the world every year.

But just over there, the colonists began construction of the settlement that would change the course of American history.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Plymouth is located in Cape Cod Bay in what is now the state of Massachusetts.

And on Christmas Day, 1620, the Pilgrims lay their very first foundations.

And this is where they began to build.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): It was originally called First Street and later renamed Leyden Street after the Pilgrims' Dutch home in exile.

This is the oldest continually inhabited street in the entire United States.

But when the Pilgrims first arrived, there was nothing much here at all.

This was just a barren, frozen hill in an unforgiving land, which meant that the cramped and squalid conditions of the Mayflower would have to be their home for a while longer.

[melancholic music] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But disease and death are now stalking the ship.

ROB BELL: Living for more than half a year on the Mayflower has taken a tragic toll.

By the end of that first winter in New England, less than half of the 102 colonists are still alive.

RICHARD PICKERING: Imagine what it's like to be with people where entire families are disappearing from the face of the Earth, that in February and early March, we know sometimes two or three people a day were dying.

LEA FILSON: It was called the winter of death by William Bradford.

He felt that-- that it had maybe been a mistake.

And just when it seems the future couldn't be any more bleak, the Native people return.

[ominous music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): On the 16th of March, a man named Samoset boldly walks into the Plymouth settlement.

The urgent question for the Pilgrims, is he friend or foe?

♪ ♪ DARIUS COOMBS: His name was Samoset.

He came into the Pilgrim village and said, "Welcome, Englishmen."

And what is very-- very welcoming to the English.

That was the first forms of diplomacy right there.

And he goes, I'm not from here, basically.

And I'm gonna bring you a leader who is.

And he brought Massasoit, a very powerful Wampanoag leader.

And Massasoit brought 60 of his men.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Massasoit is the Sachem, the high chief of all the Wampanoag people.

His nation is under threat from rival chiefs.

So Massasoit approaches the Pilgrims with a deal in mind.

DARIUS COOMBS: He needed an ally.

So he was smart enough to come out here and make an alliance with the colonists and made that very famous treaty between the two people.

ROB BELL: So the colonists, what then, formed this treaty with the Wampanoag nation?

How successful was that?

Well, between the two people, there was no major conflict, no major bloodshed or war for over 50 years.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But for the Pilgrims struggling to scratch out an existence in this unforgiving land, this treaty achieves far more than preventing violence.

SUE ALLAN: Because of this cooperation between the Indigenous people and our settlers, it was the difference between survival and dying.

There was an exchange of skills-- how to hunt, what crops to grow, how to grow them.

And without that, the colony most likely would not have survived.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): With the arrival of spring, it's time for Christopher Jones and his ship, the Mayflower, to return to England.

Their job of bringing the Pilgrims to America is now complete.

They wait for a break in the weather to set sail.

ROB BELL: Fair winds finally arrive on the 5th of April 1621.

And Master Jones sets sail for England, six months after arriving in the New World.

He leaves with the knowledge that the future of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony now seems more certain.

But as he departs the Americas, he doesn't suspect that both his future and that of the Mayflower will be cut tragically short.

[intriguing music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Blessed with fair weather and favorable westerly winds, the Mayflower arrives back in London on the 6th of May, 1621, just 31 days after departing from the Plymouth Colony.

ROB BELL: Despite the Mayflower's vital role in establishing the first English colony in New England, there is no public interest in her return.

And she glides back into London without fanfare.

For both the ship and her skipper, Master Christopher Jones, after braving the hardship and the deprivation of New England, it's back to business as usual, but only for a short time.

[melancholic music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): Christopher Jones dies suddenly, just 11 months after returning from the New World.

And by 1624, the Mayflower lies rotting on the mudflats of Rotherhithe.

The ship is valued at only 128 pounds, far short of the thousands she would have cost to build.

ROB BELL: The final damning words on the appraisal describe the Mayflower as "in ruinis," meaning that she's likely to be broken up and sold for scrap, a sad fate for a ship that changed the course of world history.

[upbeat music] ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But what happens at Plymouth Colony ensures that the Mayflower won't be forgotten.

ROB BELL: With the help of the Native Wampanoag people, the colony here at Plymouth not only survived, it thrived.

♪ ♪ The crops they planted that spring brought in a bumper harvest, which led to one of the most important events in American history.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The Pilgrim diarist William Bradford records that late in 1621, a great three-day feast takes place in celebration.

The 50 surviving Pilgrims are joined by over 90 Wampanoag men, women, and children.

This feast becomes known as the first Thanksgiving meal.

ROB BELL: Not only is Bradford's diary an important record that leads to the Thanksgiving holiday, it's also the document that informs the world about the Mayflower and her crucial role in founding the nation that will become the United States of America.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): But for hundreds of years, there was nothing to celebrate the Mayflower's amazing legacy.

All that changes in 1955-- ANNOUNCER: The good ship Mayflower comes back to America.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): --when Great Britain builds an exact replica as a gift to America for her aid in the Second World War.

But the shipbuilders encounter a problem.

No plans or drawings of this iconic ship are known to exist.

Fortunately, in the 1920s, British Maritime historian Dr.

Roger Charles Anderson constructed this, the very first scale model of the Mayflower, on which the design of Mayflower II would be based.

ROB BELL: It's so detailed.

It's absolutely stunning.

Anderson wanted to make certain in many ways that it almost was a working vessel.

This is truly rigged.

These deck boards are individual planks made of Spanish Chestnut, and each one is fashioned with a tiny, tiny little wooden peg, a tree nail, just the way an authentic ship would have been.

There are 1,500 tree nails in this deck.

ROB BELL: And there wouldn't, I guess, have been a huge range of designs of those types of ships at that time.

DONNA CURTIN: Absolutely.

Anderson, he was making a Mayflower model that would represent the ordinary merchant vessel of about the same size and about the same age as we knew the Mayflower to be.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): In April 1957, the Mayflower II departs from England, recreating the voyage of her ancestor.

ANNOUNCER: Historic Plymouth Rock beats the replica of a famous ship, and an historic trip comes to an end.

ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): The Mayflower II has been moored in Plimoth Plantation ever since, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

[upbeat music] Not surprisingly, after 60 years of being blasted by Atlantic weather, the ship needs a refit.

Now, after an intensive overhaul, it's almost ready to set sail again.

Leading the restoration is Mayflower II's captain, Whit Perry.

WHIT PERRY: It's a multi-million dollar, multi-year restoration to the Mayflower.

And it's so exciting because it's such an iconic, historic vessel for so many people.

ROB BELL: When this whole project is finished, can you imagine now what that's gonna feel like for you to see this ship in all its glory?

WHIT PERRY: To be able to sail this ship after this restoration and have it fully operational and take part in the 400th commemoration ceremonies, it will be incredible.

[soft music] ♪ ♪ ROB BELL (VOICEOVER): And the legacy of the Mayflower, and the Pilgrims she brought to the New World, is still felt in American society today.

LEA FILSON: It was the Mayflower Pilgrims that got on that creaky, horrible old merchant's boat, which never should have had people on it, and sailed to America to create a world that no one could ever have dreamed possible.

They changed all of Western civilization.

DONNA CURTIN: So this vessel that carried them here, I think, is very symbolically important to many facets of our American identity, which is based on immigration and arrival.

RICHARD PICKERING: I have worked at a living history museum that tells this story for 30 years now.

And again and again, new Americans will come up to me and say, I came from Venezuela 17 years ago for a better life here in the United States.

This is my story, too.

ROB BELL: When Master Christopher Jones agreed to sail the Pilgrims to the new world, not in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that his simple English merchant ship would play such a vital role in founding the richest nation on Earth.

You know, I can't help but wonder how he'd feel about the commemorations planned for the 400th anniversary of his voyage.

I think he'd be rather pleased.

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