SMDPA MEMBERS AND GUESTS:  Please join us for another delicious meal in a private dining room of the Alter House Restaurant & Bar, 926 Lackawanna Trail, Clarks Summit, PA 18411, followed by a presentation from author Richard A. Stone.  This resident of Hudson, NY will be traveling to speak on his recent book, Project Mayflower:  Building and Sailing a Seventeenth-Century Replica (Lyons Press, 2024).  If you have ever stepped aboard cozy confines of the “Mayflower II” docked in Plymouth, MA, you will find this fascinating story of particular interest!

Our restaurant is centrally located in Lackawanna County off major highways, Routes 11 and 6.  It is handicapped accessible with ample parking.

We will enjoy a “farm-to-table” brunch buffet consisting of:  breakfast items -- bacon & sausage, seasonal quiche, Belgian waffles with seasonal berries and local maple syrup, and assorted house pastries – plus roasted pork tenderloin with seasonal herb jus, penne pasta with house marinara, local harvest salad with seasonal vegetables & house balsamic, herb-roasted potatoes, locally baked artisanal rolls, and house brewed coffee service.  There will also be a cash bar, and options to order from the restaurant’s regular menu.  Pricing is $50 per adult, $25 for Juniors or children.  All are welcome!

To register and pay online, click here:  [links to registration pages].  Or complete and return the attached RSVP form per instructions, enclosing your check.  Limited to 30 guests, first-come, first-served.  Registration deadline is Fri., May 1.  For questions, please contact James Campbell, SMDPA Deputy Governor, [email protected].

Project Mayflower: Building and Sailing a Seventeenth-Century Replica, by Richard A. Stone (Lyons Press, 2024)

The never-before-told story of Project Mayflower—the building of the replica ship docked in Plymouth, Massachusetts—from the origins of the idea, through the financial and political influences that nearly scuttled her, the seven-week ocean voyage from England in the skilled hands of Alan Villiers, and finally her lasting impact on America.

Today, the “Mayflower II”—the replica of the 1620 ship that brought the Pilgrims to America and launched a nation—is seen by some 2.6 million visitors to Plymouth annually and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  But there is much more to the replica's story than meets the eye.  In fact, the origins of Project Mayflower began in the 1950s, not with an American, but with a British World War II veteran named Warwick Charlton, who had what seemed an impossible dream: build an historically accurate replica, sail her across the Atlantic, and present the finished product as a thank you to his country's wartime ally.

What Charlton didn't know was that the son of a powerful New England financier had the same idea.  Henry ("Harry") Hornblower II wanted a replica just as badly, though for a different reason: as a tourist attraction for a new museum he was building in Massachusetts, soon to be known as Plimoth Plantation, where the original “Mayflower” had landed centuries before.  Despite different personal motives, Charlton and Hornblower agreed to join forces when they met by chance in 1955.  Charlton would be responsible for financing, construction, and the vessel's safe passage across the Atlantic, while Hornblower promised mooring, maintenance, and exhibition. Neither man could imagine what would happen next.

Project Mayflower recounts the never-before-told story of a grand adventure, from the origins of the idea, through the financial and political influences that nearly scuttled the ship, and the challenges of building an accurate replica based on a single known mention:  William Bradford's reference in Of Plimoth Plantation describing his craft simply as "180 tons of burden."  From there, Stone traces the “Mayflower II's” dramatic seven-week ocean voyage from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the skilled hands of Alan Villiers and a crew of thirty-three bold men, and finishes by exploring the legacy of praise for the achievement, the skullduggery to tarnish the reputation of the project's creator, and finally the “Mayflower II's” lasting—and ongoing—impact on America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Richard A. Stone is the author of Project Mayflower:  Building and Sailing a Seventeenth-Century Replica (Lyons Press, 2024) and the founder of Mayflower Event News, an information platform devoted to stories related to the “Mayflower” and “Mayflower II.”

A graduate of Harvard (BA Economics) and the University of California, Los Angeles (MA Journalism), Stone worked for decades at America's premier media groups including NBC, HBO/Time Inc and ESPN/Disney.  He has been a consultant to many widely respected organizations, including the Plimoth-Patuxet Museums.