Mayflower

Two Mayflowers sit side by side in Plymouth Harbor — one is a reproduction of the original, the other a version for the 21st century. “I think it’s really cool,” said Plymouth resident Deanne Smith. “I wanted to swing by just to see it.” The high-tech vessel is called the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, and it set sail in April from…

History and the future have converged in Plymouth, with the unmanned Mayflower Autonomous Ship having traversed the Atlantic Ocean.

A crewless robotic boat retracing the 1620 sea voyage of the Mayflower landed near Plymouth Rock on Thursday. The sleek Mayflower Autonomous Ship met with an escort boat as it approached the Massachusetts shoreline, more than 400 years after its namesake’s historic voyage from England. Piloted by artificial intelligence technology, the 50-foot (15-meter) trimaran didn’t have a captain, navigator or…