A ship crossed the Atlantic from Plymouth with nobody aboard
- The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, 2022
- No captain, no crew
- Six AI cameras, 30+ sensors
- 400 years after the original
How Plymouth grew
The short version, in order. Pick a year.
The Mayflower Autonomous Ship
On 27 April a vessel left Plymouth with nobody aboard and arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts on 30 June. Built by ProMare with IBM, it navigated using six AI cameras, more than thirty sensors and edge computers making decisions at sea with no one to ask.
The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, 2022
On 27 April 2022 a vessel left Plymouth with no captain, no crew and nobody aboard at all, and on 30 June it arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, built by the marine research non-profit ProMare with IBM, became the largest uncrewed vessel to cross the Atlantic.
It navigated using six AI cameras, more than thirty sensors and a set of edge computers making decisions at sea with no one to ask. It collected data on whales and microplastics on the way.
Four hundred years after the original sailing, the same port sent a ship across the same ocean with the crew removed entirely. It is hard to think of a neater demonstration of what changed.
What that means if you trade in Plymouth
Plymouth is a long way from anywhere else, which is commercially useful: local businesses are genuinely the practical option rather than one of many, and customers know it.
The flip side is a wide, thinly populated catchment across the South Hams and into Cornwall, where travel time is the deciding factor in most enquiries.
What Plymouth businesses ask us for
Lead with travel time
Not just an area. How far you go and how long it takes is the first question here.
Cornwall or not
Crossing the Tamar changes the job. Say plainly whether you do.
Be the local option
Distance from competitors is an advantage. Make your location obvious.
How well do you know Plymouth?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Plymouth quiz · 1 of 5
What was unusual about the Mayflower Autonomous Ship?
Common questions
The simplest one-page site starts at £15 a month, with the website build included and nothing to pay up front. Every plan and its price is published on the pricing page before you speak to anyone.
Sign-up takes about 3 minutes and the build questionnaire about 5. Most sites are then designed and built within 21 hours, and live within days of the brief being answered.
No setup fee and no hidden extras. Your monthly plan covers the website build and hosting. Done-for-you plans have a 12-month minimum term, then you can cancel any time from your dashboard.
Yes — you can upgrade at any time as your business grows, with no need to start over.