Let us begin in Rotherhithe, which has more visible monuments to the story than anywhere in London. This is where master mariner Christopher Jones lived and worked, where his crew were recruited and where the ship was finally broken up for timbers. Rotherhithe has a long history with the sea and sailing, from the early trading days, to being the London home port of the Mayflower ship. Today there remain links with the sea and the river, from churches to Scandinavian sailors t

By the time Christopher Jones took the commission to sail to America in 1620 census records registered a hundred-and-twenty master mariners in Rotherhithe. The parish records also reveal the variety of local trades including ships’ masters, ropemakers, mastmakers, anchorsmiths, shipwrights and lightermen, who transported cargo and produce across the river. In less than a generation Rotherhithe had been absorbed into the burgeoning commercial maritime trade of London and began