Plymouth Plantation & The MayFlower with Saltyhead

salty head here all ready for another adventure today we are at Plymouth Plantation and Plymouth Massachusetts where the Pilgrims landed and settled here in 1620 so this is where you are now at the visitor center yes you are going out through this part of back hallway on your left that will take you outside okay once you come out you'll be right here you'll head to our Wampanoag home site to the craft center and then to English village so the first place we're going to go. Head to the Wampanoag birthplace and we'll see how the Indians lived before the Pilgrims landed, so here's an example of a Wampanoag garden where they planted corn, beans, squash and they used to take the fish and pile them up. soil and put the fish in the mound and as the fish decomposed I would fertilize and supply nutrients to their garden, which is very important because they needed the food to get them through the winter, so we will just burn the edges of it.

The bottom of this has actually already been burned off, so what you're looking at is the bottom of the ship's tree. I have to say yes, so the one you were looking at is almost finished. That one has already been burned, so the bottom of this looks like the ship you were looking at. Well, it's hollow, it's cupped, yeah, it's completely cupped at the bottom and what kind of wood is this, what kind of tree, this is an Eastern White Pine. white pine, so it's a good canoe, uh, yeah, because when you knock it down it's still alive, so this sap will come out as it burns and that will actually work as a seal and help close any openings that exist, that It will also help the boat stay balanced and buoyant.

Well, it's already blurred naturally, but yeah, and what is that tool? It has a screw. It's just a help. A hole like a garden. So here we have a Us Two and this one is covered in bark and this is a winter for us too and as you can see it's dome shaped for the snow to fall off so let's go in and see it looks like there are animal skins in here. drying we have a lot of whitetail there we have bear we have a fire pit here over here we have skunk and that was the wampanoag tribal camp now we go to the english side of

plymouth

plantation

we actually have to see how the english lived so let's go to See it, oh my God, it's the same as all the animals here, this is the garrison, yes, this is their fort, that's true, but it's also like I was saying before, it's a meeting house and a church is all kinds of things, all in one, this to protect from who, potentially, against the French, Spanish, Indians, Dutch, anyone who can attack the colony, so the first thing you notice is that the floors are all dirty and you know that they have their area kitchen.

They have their eating area and they have some furniture that they probably brought from England and the ceilings are very low probably because they can keep the heat that way and you know, I learned this a long time ago when Talking about you sleep well, that means you have to throw of these very tight ropes so that the bed is a little sturdy and then they look like the down comforters and yeah, where they eat the chimney and I could survive here very well. here, these are different types of vegetables, right, hello, how are you? What are you doing?

Oh, just mash up some corn syrup to make some flour and then the slurries that we'll use for our porridge. Oh, very good, yes, we don't have food here. still, but my brother is researching it, so you have corn, yes, so this is the corn, okay, and then here I pound it, this is good and then I sift it, okay, and the flour comes out and then the grids. I'll put it there, great, it's very colorful, yes, all in the same year too, sir, all in the same year, look they turned blue, they're supposed to be like Indian corn, well, that's exactly it, sir , our English corn is wheat and rye and barley so this is Indian corn or corn oh, how do you play this day?

Well, you know, I thought I saw someone stealing chickens from one of the, you know, one of the chicken coops there and I didn't. I know if I should report it, but I heard this is Governor Bradford's house and um, he's not around, he's out, he's out, wow, he lives pretty well and, are you, um, his wife, or am I a neighbor? I've come to visit his wife, oh okay, I had to run after his kids, so I'm looking at the fire for a moment until she comes back, are you making medicine?, oh, I see the roasting herbs, some onions , I'm melting some butter, now I put. to onions, butter and sugar, it's very good against coughs and shortness of breath that first winter, I think you lost half of your half, eh, people, right?

That's true, yes, yes, we have banana, we have been blessed with better health, oh look. In this, oh, now we have a craftsman, we have a craftsman, I don't know, but it's not a trade that I practice, I can tell you that to build somewhere here in New England, so yeah, why did you know? Why not? Stay in Provincetown, it's such a beautiful provincial town, you first landed in Provincetown, you didn't stay there, there are no towns there, you mean custom, uh, well pam, yeah, I think you call panic, oh well , that's not really arable land, I mean, it's all. sand, oh, that's not all, obviously, you approach the vegetation and you discover that yes, there is water and things like that there, but now we look, you were anchored there simply to wait out a storm, um and it was decided, well , let's build a place. in New England instead yeah, there's a good harbor, uh, but on the other hand, it's dangerous and, uh, um, here's a sheltered harbor, okay, you know, it keeps the worst storms away, yeah, and well, other things, I mean, it was open here.

We could start building immediately where the lane is located. There were uh there are fresh water springs here yeah fresh water you need that water in uh the fertile lands were definitely oversized oh yeah wow I'm just trying to find Governor Bradford how? Oh yes, Governor Bradford, yes, it's a pleasure to meet you. Oh, he was going to report that someone had taken a chicken from someone else and he didn't know if that's something you should know about refereeing, although it would be that kind of thing. that if you couldn't be arbitrated in court, you could also be brought before our civil war criminal courts, so that was the English camp and now we'll head over to the Mayflower and see what the ship was. so they sailed here and um it's all been restored for its 400th anniversary so it should be in pretty good shape so let's go check it out and here's Plymouth Rock, more symbolic than anything else because it didn't arrive the the

mayflower

was here and it was the stone that represented the pilgrim's landing here in

plymouth

, massachusetts, the first colony, so here we have the

mayflower

after 400 years in november 2020, it will be exactly 400 years that this ship made its journey from england. to america with the pilgrims on board for the first thanksgiving how many people came on the mayflower there are about 100 passengers we don't know what the crew size is because the passengers don't tell us that a good guess would probably be about 30 to maybe 35.

Almost all of them make it to New England alive, only two people die before reaching Cape Cod, a sailor and a crew, five or six died on Cape Cod while they were there about a month, yes, in the time we are here before Mayflower leaves early April 16-21, so in about three months, about 60 people died, so almost everyone who dies dies here. Oh wow, did we know what they died of? I mean, basically, it's basically kind of exposure and weakness and colds and things like that, I mean, they spend five months on the ship when they actually get to Plymouth, if you add everything up correctly, yeah, and then they're still living on the ship at a mile and a half from the coast while We're building houses on the coast in the dead of winter because they just got here in mid-December, yeah, that's what kills a bridge.

You call it a bridge, yes, well you would on a modern ship, but this is where, excuse me, all your orders would be transmitted from yes, why do they call it crow nuts? just because crows certain trees don't, that's what they call them that on 19th century whaling ships, we would call these a countertop or a bowl, well I hope you enjoyed this adventure in the Thanksgiving story, it all happened here in Plymouth Massachusetts, so until next time, this is Salty Head and thanks for watching.