US 🇺🇸 250 🇬🇧 UK - Mayflower 1620, Southampton Event Cache

Welcome to a geocaching event at the point where the Mayflower and the Speedwell set sail on 15th August 1620.

Sunday 2nd August 2026, 11am to 11.30am

To mark 405 years, 11 months, and 18 days since this auspicious occasion,

everyone is welcome to join me at the historic Pilgrim Fathers Memorial for a geocaching event.

The Pilgrims, originally known as Separatists, were a group of English dissenters who broke away from the Church of England in the early 1600s. Seeking freedom to practice their faith, they first fled to the Netherlands before ultimately deciding to establish a new community in North America. In 1620, 102 passengers sailed aboard the Mayflower, enduring a difficult 65‑day voyage before landing in present‑day Massachusetts, where they founded Plymouth Colony, the first permanent English settlement in New England. Their story, rooted in religious conviction, hardship, and survival, became a foundational narrative in American history.

Southampton plays a significant role in this history as one of the key departure points for the Pilgrims’ transatlantic journey. On 15 August 1620, the Mayflower and Speedwell set sail from Southampton Quay, though the Speedwell’s repeated leaks forced both ships to turn back twice before the Pilgrims ultimately continued from Plymouth alone. To commemorate Southampton’s part in this momentous voyage, the city erected the Pilgrim Fathers’ Memorial in 1913.

Standing 50 feet tall on the Western Esplanade, the memorial is a striking Portland‑stone column rising through five stepped stages to a white‑and‑gold mosaic cupola supported by eight Ionic columns. At its peak sits a copper weather vane shaped like the Mayflower, symbolizing the ship’s historic journey. The monument was designed by R. M. Lucas, funded by public donations from Britain and the United States, and unveiled in a ceremony attended by the American ambassador and the Bishop of Winchester. Today, it remains a prominent landmark honoring the Pilgrims’ departure and Southampton’s connection to the early history of the United States.