The Mayflower sailed from England to the Americas in 1620, carrying over 100 passengers, who would later become known as the Pilgrim Fathers.

Little is known about the size and specifications of the Mayflower, though experts guess it would have measured over 30 metres in length, like other trading vessels of the period.

The ship landed at Plymouth Rock, in what would later be named New England, after 65 hard days at sea. The men of the ship signed their allegiance to a religious way of life in the “Mayflower Compact”, before disembarking on 11th November 1620.

The Mayflower came to be a symbol of the struggle to build a new life in a strange land and the majority of the first English settlers lived their lives according to strict religious and moral guidelines in the face of many trials and great hardship.

The ship set sail to return to England in April 1621 and historians have surmised that it was broken up for scrap in 1624 – the year following the death of the ship’s captain, Christopher Jones.

A carefully-researched replica of the Mayflower was built in 1956 and is now open for visitors close to Plymouth Rock, New England, USA.