''The Second Voyage of the Mimi'' is a twelve-episode American
educational
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...
depicting a fictional crew of a
sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
Types
Although sailboat terminology ...
named the ''Mimi'' exploring
Mayan
Mayan most commonly refers to:
* Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America
* Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America
* Mayan languages, language family spoken ...
ruins in Southern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Along the way, they learn about ancient civilization and also attempt to foil the plans of looters who steal the artifacts from the ancient sites. This series is a sequel to ''
The Voyage of the Mimi
''The Voyage of the Mimi'' is a thirteen-episode American educational television program depicting the crew of the ship ''Mimi'' exploring the ocean and taking a census of humpback whales. The series aired on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) a ...
'', produced in 1984, in which the Granvilles rented their boat and services to zoologists studying the
humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...
in the waters off
.
The series aired on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
and was created by the
Bank Street College of Education in 1988 to teach middle-schoolers about
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
and
social studies.
In each episode, viewers are taught something scientific relating to plot events in the previous episode of the show. For example, an episode's plot would be about deciphering Mayan writing, and the viewer also receives information about how the Maya wrote various words and numbers.
Cast
''The Second Voyage of the Mimi'' saw a young
Ben Affleck return as C.T. Granville, and Peter G. Marston as his grandfather Captain Granville. Marston was a scientist at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
during the production of the program and used to own the actual ship, the ''Mimi''.
Main Cast Listing:
*
Ben Affleck as Clement Tyler (C.T.) Granville
*
Peter G. Marston as Captain Clement Tyler Granville
*
Martha Hill
Martha Hill (December 1, 1900 – November 19, 1995) was one of the most influential American dance instructors in history. She was the first Director of Dance at the Juilliard School, and held that position for almost 35 years.
Early lif ...
as Pepper Thornton, who is an expert scuba diver
*
Roger Cudney as Pepper's former employer, Harvey Westerman.
*Hector Tellez as Pedro, an employee of Westerman's.
*Inaki Carrion as Victor Cobos, an archeologist
*Cheryl Lynn Bruce as Terry Gibbs, another archeologist who works with Victor.
*Carla Douglin as Quiché Gibbs, Terry Gibbs's daughter.
*Enrique Lucero as Tomás Segovia, the man in charge of archeological sites in that part of Mexico.
*Patricia Ancira as Rosa Segovia, Tomas Segovia's daughter, also a skilled diver.
Episodes
Each episode consists of two fifteen-minute segments.
The first segment of each episode follows the serialized tale of scientists studying the ancient Maya and getting involved with thwarting site looters. The two scientists are Victor Cobos, a Mexican man of Maya descent, and Terry Gibbs, an American woman. Terry's husband is revealed to have been killed by site looters. Terry's daughter Quiché has grown up with archeology and can already read Maya writing. They hire the Granvilles in
Quintana Roo,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, near
Tulum, to help them study the routes of ancient Maya ships. The Granvilles in turn hire Pepper Thornton, the daughter of one of Captain Granville's old sailing buddies, because she is an expert diver. Previously, Pepper worked for Harvey Westerman, a skinflint tour operator, guiding tourists on dives through then reefs.
Each second segment is a standalone exploration of one of the scientific principles touched on in the serialized tale. In these second segments, one of the child actors (Ben Affleck or Carla Douglin) comes out of character and interviews real, in many cases well-known, scientists abouts their work. These scientists include
archeologists Bill Fash, Peter Reynolds and
David Stuart, and
rain forest ecologist
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
Nalini Nadkarni. In addition, Martha Hill, a silver medalist in the Winter Paralympics, comes out of character in an interview with Ben Affleck at the beginning of the information segment titled "Expedition 1 If I can Do This".
The real vessel ''Mimi''
The ''Mimi'' was a French-built sailboat, originally constructed in 1931 as a small cargo and fishing vessel. It was purchased in the early 1980s by Peter Marston and was kept moored in
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
,
. Besides its appearances on the TV show, it went from city to city and acted as a tourist attraction in places such as Salem, Massachusetts,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, and other cities.
In 1988, Peter Marston and some freelance musicians produced a cassette and songbook called "Sea Songs from the Mimi Crew" of old-time sea songs self-published under the name "The Barn School" based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The cassette and songbook were available from the actual sailing vessel Mimi, as well as where music was sold, and in museum gift shops. The cassette and songbook are now out of print.
Also available from the sailing vessel Mimi were souvenirs such as T-shirts and buttons that said "I was on board the Mimi." The souvenirs are no longer manufactured, and have hardly turned up on Internet marketers such as
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
or
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
.
Marston retained ownership of the vessel until 1998, when the boat was sold to new owners; Captain George G. Story of Gloucester, Massachusetts, his brother Captain Alan M. Story of Deltona, Florida and Spiro "Steve" Cocotas, also from Gloucester. They operated the vessel as Three Mates Inc. for several years, bringing the boat to as many as 28 cities along the east coast. The ''Mimi'' eventually fell into disrepair, and was scrapped in 2011.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Second Voyage of the Mimi, The
PBS original programming
Science education television series
1980s American television miniseries
1988 American television series debuts
1988 American television series endings
English-language television shows
Archaeology of Mexico