Move over, Mayflower descendants

I read somewhere that there are 30 million folks who can trace their roots back to the Mayflower. Even after 400 years, this still sounds pretty wild, given that there were only 102 passengers and 30 crew members. Whether it's true or not, I'm 100% certain that I'm not one of the 30 million (or whatever the actual number is) descendants of the Mayflower.

My Irish antecedents - four paternal great-grandparents - emigrated in the 1870's. My German antecedents are a lot more recent. My grandparents, my toddler mother in tow, came over in the 1920's. Not much ante in that cedent! 

Years ago, I took my young nieces on a tour of a replica of the Mayflower, which is tied up in Plymouth Harbor, a stone's throw from Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims most likely didn't step their first toe in the New World in 1620. Make that most likely impossible that their first land onto new world land, given that the Pilgrims had first come ashore in Provincetown. 

What I remember most about the Mayflower was how compact the ship was. (Sorry: couldn't resist; Mayflower Compact? Get it now?) This tiny primitive boat, crammed full of people, heading into the unknown.

In comparison, my Irish great-grandparents, and my German grandparents and mother, came over in relative luxury. Comparatively speaking, their experiences, while not exactly luxe, was probably closer to what one might experience on the Queen Mary than to what was suffered by the Mayflower-ees.

While on their way, the Pilgrims had to contend with rough waters. Cold. (The Mayflower left England in early September 1620, and arrived on these shores in mid-December - just in time for a good old fashioned New England winter. During which nearly half of the new arrivals perished.) Spoiled water. Ghastly food. Scurvy all round. Sea sickness galore. Boredom. Rats. 

And I can't begin to imagine what the Mayflower smelled like. I suspect that, back in the day, folks went nose-blind pretty quickly.

And yet enough of them survived to spawn, over the centuries, 30 million descendants. Alright, alright, alright.

They'll be getting more company from a different branch. Only these descendants won't exactly be human. They'll be more advanced technologies that are spawned by all the sensors, analytical tools, and AI that's manning the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (AS). The Mayflower 400 is heading this way soon, coming across the Atlantic with nary a captain nor crew member on board. 

As the good ship next-gen Mayflower makes it from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, it will be "the first unmanned vessel to navigate its own way across the Atlantic Ocean." (The ship is also referred to as the  Mayflower 400 because its voyage was supposed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the original Mayflower
journey.)

The vessel has artificial intelligence technology and in-built computer systems to measure sea levels, the chemical content of the ocean, and record audio to track whale populations.

The goal is that autonomous ships like the Mayflower 400 will allow the collection of much more data than manned vessels alone - and be far less expensive...

The ship will be monitored from land using the cameras and sensors aboard and can be remotely controlled in an emergency. The AI-trained "captain" - the vessel's onboard computer - has been trained using thousands of images and collision avoidance rules that it gradually learns from.(Source: EuroNews)

This is all completely cool and interesting. Sure, Mayflower AS might run into terrible weather and rough seas. But there'll be no rats, seasickness, or scurvy. The place won't stink. 

No Plymouth Rock to disembark onto, but that's no great loss. I hope the landlubbers monitoring the trip will at least break out into an occasional sea chanties.

Meanwhile, I wish the good ship Mayflower AS fair winds and following seas.