![]() With winter approaching and a short supply of food and beer, they decided to go no further and dropped anchor off the coast of Cape Cod in Provincetown harbor. “Wading Ashore.” Illustration published in A Pictorial History of the United States circa 1852 Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof.” But after they had sailed that course about half a day, they fell amongst dangerous shoals and roaring breakers, and resolved to bear up again for the Cape, and thought themselves happy to get out of those dangers before night overtook them. ![]() “…after long beating at sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod: they were not a little joyful! After some deliberation amongst themselves and with the master of the ship, they resolved to sail southward to find someplace about Hudson’s river for their habitation. Nonetheless, after 66 days at sea, the pilgrims were relieved to see land, according to Bradford in his manuscript Of Plymouth Plantation: Although the pilgrims had intended to land in northern Virginia, when they reached the shore they realized they were in New England. The passengers sighted shore on November 9. By the time the pilgrims reached America many of them became ill and one young boy, William Butten, an indentured servant to Samuel Fuller, died just a few days before reaching land. The constant cold and dampness on board began to take a toll on the pilgrim’s health. “Mayflower At Sea.” Illustration published in Pictorial History of the United States circa 1852 The crew managed to fix the beam and fill some of the leaks. The pilgrims worried the ship would not be strong enough to make it America. A series of storms caused the ship to leak and the main mast to crack. One of the women, Elizabeth Hopkins, gave birth on the Mayflower to a son that she named Oceanus.Ībout halfway into the journey, the Mayflower ran into bad weather. The passengers were healthy and there were even three pregnant women on board. The first half of the voyage was smooth with sunny skies and fair weather. The Mayflower passengers included William Bradford, who later became governor of Plymouth plantation and wrote a detailed book about the journey to America on the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation titled Of Plymouth Plantation. Only a few of the crew’s names were recorded but they included a cooper named John Alden, ship surgeon Giles Heale and Pilots and Master’s Mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin. The 37 crew members and the captain lived in cabins at the back of the upper deck. The pilgrims lived on the gun deck, which was about 5 1/2 feet in height, and would sometimes venture upstairs to the upper deck during calm weather. The Mayflower had three decks, an upper deck, a gun deck below it and the cargo hold at the bottom. The Speedwell leaked so badly that both ships had to return to England.Ī few weeks later, the pilgrims all boarded the Mayflower and it set sail alone from Plymouth, England on September 16, 1620.Īlthough the Mayflower was a large ship measuring about 80 feet in length and 24 feet wide, the 102 passengers on board led to cramped conditions. The Mayflower set sail from England along with another ship, the Speedwell, on August 15, 1620. In May of 1620, religious separatists known as pilgrims hired Jones and his ship to take them to the mouth of the Hudson River in North America where they had been granted permission to build a colony. Rated at 180 tons (meaning that her hold was capable of accommodating 180 casks or turns of wine), she was approximately three times the size of the Speedwell and about one hundred feet in length.” The Pilgrim’s Voyage on the Mayflower: “The Mayflower was a typical merchant vessel of her day square-rigged and beak bowed, with high, castlelike superstructures fore and aft that protected her cargo and crew in the worst weather, but made beating against the wind a painfully inefficient endeavor. Jones never ventured into the North Sea with the Mayflower again and instead went back and forth between France and Spain delivering wine, cognac and vinegar, according to the book Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War: The ship began leaking during a storm on the way back to England and the crew had to dump some of its cargo overboard to save it. Jones’ first voyage on the Mayflower was to Norway in 1609 where the ship transported fish, lumber and tar. The Mayflower was a European cargo ship in the years before its voyage to the New World with the pilgrims. Model of Mayflower ship at Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, Mass, circa 1905
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