A Nautical Remembrance for Thanksgiviing

While counting our blessings this Thanksgiving, we would do well to remember the courageous Pilgrims that endured 65 days at sea on the Mayflower. They were bound for Virginia, but a storm that descended on them halfway blew them northward. 

You know the rest. Instead of landing in Virginia, they landed at Cape Cod. 

Being a sailor, I was interested in finding more about the Mayflower, and how crew and pilgrims managed to coexist for more than two months on the Atlantic Ocean.

So I went online and found a very cool site that is geared to teaching kids about Thanksgiving -- and the Mayflower. 

Graphics and Learning courtesy of Scholastic.org. Photography by Russ Kendall

The site was put together courtesy of Scholastic  a superb resource for learning about history and other nifty subjects. Click on the link below to check it out. http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/

Whether you are eight or eighty, this is a pretty cool synopsis of what the pilgrims went through, including a "tour" of the Mayflower. 

Today's Fact

Did you know the helmsman of the Mayflower could not see where they were going? He was down below decks, taking his instructions from a "conner" who was on the deck above, shouting orders to the helmsman who moved a large stick called the whipstaff (today we would call that "stick" a tiller) which was connected to the rudder. 

While we at Nautical Chart Wallpaper take a couple of days off to be thankful and to be grateful to heaven for all our blessings, we wish you, our clients and potential clients, the very best for this holiday season. 

So now, when the family gathers together, why not bring your kids or grand kids over to your tablet, phone, or computer and using the link above, teach them a very colorful lesson about the Pilgrims and the ship upon which they sailed.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Nautical Chart Wallpaper and Nautical Walls! 

Skipper Steve Morris, LInda Morris, and Kathryn Tyler