It would be difficult to find another place in England as rich in historical associations as Dartmouth in Devon. We entered the narrow entrance to the harbor in the early morning, with St Petrox church on the port side. This church was founded in 597 AD in the age of the Celtic saints. Our morning walking tour took us to the newer (but still mediaeval) church of St Saviour. Its rare example of a mediaeval rood screen that escaped destruction during the Reformation, and its memorial brass to John Hawley, the rich Dartmouth merchant on whom Geoffrey Chaucer based a character in his "Canterbury Tales", made for a memorable visit.
On Baynard's Quay, we stood on the very cobblestones from which the Pilgrim Fathers departed for America. They had originally set sail from Plymouth and some of us visited the very steps they departed from during the afternoon. The Pilgrim Fathers called into Dartmouth after the Speedwell sprung a leak. They finally sailed for America from an embankment next to the gunnery that Henry VIII had built a century earlier against a possible invasion from Catholic Spain.
Throughout its history Dartmouth has had close links with the navy, and for a century and a half the Naval College has dominated the town. It was from Dartmouth, in the final stages of the Second World War, that a flotilla left for the beaches of Normandy. Today the town continues its maritime tradition: the River Dart teems with small pleasure craft, the Endeavour mooring mid-stream in afternoon sunshine. The great affection the town has for our ship was obvious throughout our stay. Greeted by the Town Crier upon arrival, we invited him and the town's Mayor to join us for the Captain's welcome dinner. They graced the occasion in full regalia: it had been a quintessentially English summer's day.
