Restoring the Mayflower II
We’ll take the easy way up,” says Matthew Barnes, as I follow the 34-year-old lead shipwright up the stairs to the top of a wooden scaffold overlooking the Mystic River. A wooden door controlled by a pulley closes solidly behind us as we step into “The Mailbox,” a nickname the shipwrights have given to the temporary structure erected in the back of the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.
