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Plymouth Leasing

Did You Know?

Back in 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth docks, headed for the New World. Those aboard the ship went on to establish the second English colony in what later became the United States of America. John Howland fell overboard the Mayflower during a storm and was almost lost at sea but managed to grab the topsail halyards, giving the crew enough time to rescue him with a boat hook. His descendants include Franklin D Roosevelt, George W Bush, the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and Humphrey Bogart.

The Eddystone Lighthouses have sat off the coastline of Plymouth for centuries, but it was Smeaton’s Tower, the third and most notable of the lighthouses, that has proven the most significant. Celebrated civil engineer John Smeaton created the tower, based on the shape of an oak tree.

When Sir Francis Drake was Mayor of Plymouth, he helped create one of the first municipal water supplies in the country. As well as masterminding the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world in command of a crew.

Local pharmacist, William Cookworthy, became the first person in Britain to work out how to make hard porcelain having found china clay in Cornwall. Porcelain had previously been imported from China. But Cookworthy founded a works in Plymouth.

Plymouth born ‘Scott of the Antarctic’ led the first-ever British expedition to reach the South Pole in 1912.Royal Navy officer Captain Robert Falcon Scott became world-famous after a successful first exploration of Antarctica on the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904).

In 1973 the city’s local football team, Plymouth Argyle, hosted a friendly match against Brazilian side Santos FC, one of the best clubs in the world at the time. Their line-up featured world-renowned player, Pelé. And despite the superstar scoring a penalty, shockingly it was Plymouth Argyle who won.

Plymouth University was originally the Plymouth School of Navigation, which opened in 1862. In 2012 staff, students and local residents celebrated the institutions 150th anniversary.