On September 16, 1620, four hundred years ago today, the merchant ship Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The mix of religious separatists and entrepreneurs referred to today as Pilgrims would establish the first permanent European settlement in New England.

Today, a high tech autonomous ship, also called the Mayflower, was unveiled. The craft was originally intended to set off to replicate the voyage of the original Mayflower on the anniversary of the original’s departure but was delayed by the pandemic. The plan is now to test the craft, referred to as the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS), over the next six months and to attempt the voyage in April, 2021.    

MAS is designed to be wholly autonomous, which is to say unmanned and not operated remotely. Instead of a crew, it will rely on AI Captain, a computer developed by IBM, to make all decisions related to operations, navigation, and collision avoidance. The project is a joint venture, led by marine research organization ProMare, partnered with IBM. It is intended to test the limits of autonomous design and to perform ocean research. 

MAS is a trimaran powered by solar and possibly wind power. It is apparently 15m long and with 6.2m of beam, according to an IBM press release dated September 15.

What makes keeping track of this project challenging is that there are several versions of the design floating around on the web, including one version that is 32.5m long with a 16m beam and twin masts and sails. There also seem to be various versions of a single smaller rigid sail, while the launch photograph shows only a radar platform where the mast would be placed. 

What does MAS have in common with the original Mayflower? Beyond both being watercraft essentially nothing. The original ship was a well used and a rather leaky merchantman paid to transport people and their belongings. MAS is specifically designed not to carry humans. Rather than the old Mark 1 Human in command, an IBM computer will be at the helm.

Brett Phaneuf, co-director of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship project, told the Washington Post that there is a parallel and a difference between the two Mayflower voyages four centuries apart: “Neither of us are sure we were going to make it.” 

“But our risk is much smaller than their risk — if we don’t make it, no one will be injured, no one will die,” he said. “But we’re going to learn a tremendous amount, no matter how far we get.”

So, will MAS be a technological breakthrough or a hazard to navigation? Time will tell. 

If MAS succeeds in crossing the Atlantic, it is worth noting that it will not be the first autonomous craft to do so. For more than a decade, autonomous Slocum gliders have been slowly crisscrossing the ocean collecting data and doing research. The first glider to cross the Atlantic autonomously was the Rutgers University RU27, nicknamed “The Scarlet Knight,” back in 2009.

Autonomous ship ‘Mayflower’ begins sea trials ahead of its Atlantic voyage

Thanks to Roberta Weisbrod for contributing to this post.