The Second Voyage of the Mimi
The Second Voyage of the Mimi is a twelve-episode American educational television program depicting a fictional crew of a sailboat named the Mimi exploring Mayan ruins in Southern Mexico. Along the way, they learn a lot 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, produced in 1984, in which the Granvilles rented their boat and services to zoologists studying the humpback whale in the waters off Massachusetts.
The series aired on PBS and was created by the Bank Street College of Education in 1988 to teach middle-schoolers about science and social studies in an interesting and interactive way.
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.
Elementary school teachers will find more than just springboards for archeological lessons in The Second Voyage of the Mimi, but also springboards for lessons in writing techniques, social studies, linguistics and history.
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 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 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 Gibb'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.
- Philip Guilmont as George Andrews, an archeobotanist who studies how the ancient Maya used plants.
- Barbara Turner Hubp as Jean Andrews, George's wife, an archeologist who studies Maya villages.
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, 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 and David Stuart, and rain forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni. In addition, Martha Hill, a competitive athlete in Special Olympics contests, comes out of character in an interview with Ban Affleck.
Series 1:
- A Charter to the Past/If I Can Do This!
- A Tomb in the Jungle/Sweating It Out
- A Light in the Dark/As the Earth Turns
- The Underworld/The Incredible Shrinking Head!
- A Stone Puzzle/Feeling the Pressure
- Cracking the Code/Written in Stone
- The Quest Begins/The Ancient Farm
- A Road To Danger/Venom: A Scorpion Tale
- A Friendly Village/Curandera
- Discoveries/Up a Tree
- Found and Lost/In the Canopy
- The Fate of a King/One Stone at a Time
The real vessel Mimi
The Mimi is 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, Massachusetts. 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, and other cities.
Marston retained ownership of the vessel until 1999, 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.[1]