Mayflower

A congregation of approximately 400 English Protestants living in exile in Leiden, Holland were dissatisfied with the failure of the Church of England to eliminate its excesses and abuses. Rather than work for change in England (as other Puritans did), they chose to live as separatists in religiously tolerant Holland in 1608. As separatists, they were considered illegal radicals by their home country. The Leiden government's reputation for offering financial aid to reformed English, French and German churches caused the city to become a desirable destination for Protestant intellectuals. Many of the separatists were members of an illegal church in Nottinghamshire, England, secretly practicing their Puritan form of Protestantism. When they learned that the authorities were aware of their congregation, church members hurriedly fled in the night without most of their possessions and clandestinely traveled to Holland. ==Voyage==

Leaving Holland After deciding to leave Holland, the Pilgrims planned to cross the Atlantic using two purchased ships. The small ship Speedwell would first carry them from Leiden to England, and the larger Mayflower would transport most of the passengers and supplies across the ocean. "The Pilgrims and Puritans actually referred to themselves as God's New Israel", writes Peter Marshall. William Bradford, another leader who would be the second governor of the Plymouth Colony, similarly described the departure: The trip to the south coast of England took three days, where the ship took anchor at Southampton on , 1620. At Southampton, the Pilgrims first saw Mayflower, which was being loaded with provisions. The ship proceeded down the Thames to the south coast of England, where it anchored at Southampton, Hampshire. While there, she awaited the planned rendezvous on 22 July with the Speedwell, arriving from Holland with members of the Leiden congregation. Although both ships planned to depart for America by the end of July, a leak was discovered on Speedwell that required repair. The ships set sail for America around 5 August, but Speedwell sprang another leak shortly after, necessitating the ships' return to Dartmouth for repairs. They made a new start after the repairs, but more than 200 miles (320 km) beyond Land's End at the southwestern tip of England, Speedwell sprang a third leak. As it was now early September, with vital funds having been wasted that were crucial to the success of the Pilgrims' settlement in America, Speedwell's journey was scrapped. Both ships returned to Plymouth, England, where 20 Speedwell passengers joined the overcrowded Mayflower, while the others returned to Holland. The Mayflower crew waited for seven more days until the intensity of the wind increased. William Bradford was especially worried, writing, "We lie here waiting for as fair a wind as can blow... Our victuals will be half eaten up, I think, before we go from the coast of England; and, if our voyage last long, we shall not have a month's victuals when we come in the country." According to Bradford, Speedwell was refitted and seaworthy, having "made many voyages... to the great profit of her owners." He suggested that Speedwells master may have used "cunning and deceit" to abort the voyage by causing the leaks, fearing starvation and death in America. Mayflower sets sail In early September, western gales turned the North Atlantic into a dangerous place to sail. Mayflowers provisions were already quite low when departing Southampton, and they became lower still by delays of more than a month. The passengers had been on board the ship this entire time, weary and ill-prepared for a very taxing, lengthy Atlantic journey in the cramped spaces of a small ship. At about 180 tons, she was considered a smaller cargo ship, having traveled mainly between England and Bordeaux with clothing and wine, not an ocean ship. Mayflower's physical condition was suboptimal, as she was sold for scrap four years after her Atlantic voyage. Voyage across the Atlantic The living quarters for the 102 passengers were cramped, with the living area about or and the ceiling about high. With couples and children packed closely together for a trip lasting two months, a great deal of trust and confidence was required among everyone aboard. Author Rebecca Fraser wrote that the Pilgrims "believed they had a covenant like the Jewish people of old" and that "America was the new Promised Land". The first half of the voyage proceeded over calm seas and under pleasant skies. Then the weather changed, with continuous northeasterly storms and huge waves constantly crashing against the topside deck. ==Arrival in America==

On 1620, the crew sighted present-day Cape Cod. They spent several days trying to sail south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, where they had obtained permission to settle from the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London. However, the strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, known today as Provincetown Harbor, and with supplies running short, they set anchor on . It was before setting anchor that the male Pilgrims and non-Pilgrim passengers (whom the Pilgrims called "strangers") wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact. Myles Standish was selected to ensure that the rules were obeyed, as there was a consensus that discipline must be enforced to ensure the survival of the planned colony. The moment when the Pilgrims stepped ashore was described by William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth Colony: First winter On Monday, , an exploring expedition was launched under the direction of Capt. Christopher Jones to find a suitable settlement site. There were 34 people in the open small boat, 24 passengers and 10 sailors. They were ill-prepared for the bitter winter weather that they encountered, which was much colder than what they had experienced in England. The weather forced them to spend the night ashore, ill-clad in below-freezing temperatures with wet shoes and stockings that froze overnight. Bradford wrote, "Some of our people that are dead took the original of their death here". Historian Benson John Lossing described that first settlement: Jones had originally planned to return to England as soon as the Pilgrims found a settlement site, but his crew members were ravaged by the same diseases that were felling the Pilgrims, and he realized that he must remain in Plymouth Harbor "till he saw his men began to recover." in less than half the time that it had taken her to sail to America. ==Passengers==

Some families traveled together, while some men came alone, leaving families in England and Leiden. More than one third of the passengers were Separatists who sought to leave the Church of England and create a society that incorporated their own religious ideals. Other passengers were hired hands, servants or farmers recruited by London merchants, all originally destined for the Colony of Virginia. Passengers passed the time by reading by candlelight or playing cards and games. They consumed large amounts of alcohol such as beer with meals. This was known to be safer than water, which often came from polluted sources and caused disease. == Mayflower ship history ==

There were 26 vessels bearing the name Mayflower in the port books of England during the reign of King James I (1603–1625), although it is unknown why the name was so popular. The identity of captain Christopher Jones's Mayflower is based on records from her home port, her known tonnage (est. 180–200 tons) and the master's name. Records dating from August 1609 note Jones as master and part owner of Mayflower when the ship was chartered for a voyage from London to Trondheim, Norway and back to London. The ship lost an anchor on her return in bad weather, and she made short delivery of her cargo of herring. Litigation resulted that went unresolved until at least 1612. According to records, the ship was twice on the Thames at London in 1613, once in July and again in October and November, and in 1616 she was on the Thames carrying a cargo of wine, which suggests that the ship had recently been on a voyage to France, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands or some other wine-producing land. Jones sailed Mayflower across the English Channel, taking English woolens to France and bringing French wine back to London. He also transported hats, hemp, Spanish salt, hops and vinegar to Norway, and he may have taken Mayflower whaling in the North Atlantic off Spitsbergen or sailed to Mediterranean ports. No further records relate to Jones's Mayflower from 1616 until 1624. It is unusual for a ship that traded in and out of London to have disappeared from the records for such a long time. No admiralty court documents have been found that mention the Pilgrims' voyage of 1620. This may be the result of loss of records from the period or the unusual manner in which the transfer of the Pilgrims was arranged from Leyden to New England. Jones was one of the owners of the ship by 1620, along with Christopher Nichols, Robert Child and Thomas Short. Thomas Weston chartered Mayflower from Child and Short in the summer of 1620 to undertake the Pilgrims' voyage. Weston played a significant role in the Mayflower's voyage, as he was a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, and he eventually traveled to the Plymouth Colony himself. Later history Three of Mayflowers owners applied to the admiralty court for an appraisal of the ship on 4 May 1624, two years after Captain Jones's death in 1622. Among these applicants was Jones's widow Josian Jones. This appraisal was most likely conducted to determine the ship's value in an effort to settle the captain's estate. The appraisal was conducted by four mariners and shipwrights of Rotherhithe, London (the home and burial place of Captain Jones), where Mayflower was stationed in the Thames. The appraisal documents have been preserved and provide information on the ship's gear and equipment, such as muskets and other arms. The ship may have been confined to port following Jones's death and allowed to avoid repair, as the appraisal indicates. The vessel was valued at 128 pounds, eight shillings and fourpence. Mayflower's final disposition is an unsettled issue. Charles Edward Banks, an English historian of the ship, claims that she was disassembled. Historical records indicate that in 1624, Thomas Russell of Jordans, a village in Buckinghamshire erected a barn with timbers purchased from a shipbreaker's yard in Rotherhithe, which many believe to have been those of the Mayflower. The structure still exists as the Mayflower Barn, located within the grounds of Old Jordan in South Buckinghamshire. The well-preserved barn became a tourist attraction, receiving visitors from around the world, but it later became privately owned and was closed to the public. == Mayflower design and layout ==

Mayflower was square-rigged with a beakhead bow and high, castle-like structures fore and aft that protected the crew and the main deck from the elements. This design was typical of English merchant ships of the early 17th century. Her stern carried a , square aft-castle that posed difficulties for the ship to sail close to the wind and was ill-suited for the North Atlantic's prevailing westerlies, especially in the fall and winter of 1620. As a result, the voyage from England to America took more than two months. Mayflowers return trip to London in April–May 1621 took less than half that time, with the same strong winds now blowing in the direction of the voyage. • Three primary levels: main deck, gun deck and cargo hold Captain Christopher Jones's cabin was located aft on the main deck in the stern and measured approximately about . Forward of that was the steerage room, which probably housed berths for the ship's officers and contained the ship's compass and whipstaff (tiller extension) for sailing control. Forward of the steerage room was the capstan, a vertical axle used to control ropes or cables. Far forward on the main deck, just aft of the bow, was the forecastle space where the ship's cook prepared meals for the crew. The sailors may have also slept in the forecastle. The poop deck was located on the ship's highest level above the stern on the aft castle and above Jones's cabin. On this deck stood the poop house, which was ordinarily a chart room or a cabin for the master's mates on most merchant ships, but it might have been used by the passengers on Mayflower for sleeping or cargo. The passengers resided in the gun deck during the voyage, a space measuring about with a ceiling. It was a dangerous place if there was conflict, as it had gun ports from which cannon could be deployed to fire upon enemies. The gun room was in the stern area of the deck, although passengers had no access to the storage space for gunpowder and ammunition. The gun room may have also housed a pair of stern chasers, small cannon used to fire from the ship's stern. Forward on the gun deck in the bow area was a windlass, similar in function to that of the steerage capstan, which was used to raise and lower the ship's main anchor. There were no stairs for the passengers on the gun deck to ascend through the gratings to the main deck; the passengers could only reach the deck by climbing a wooden or rope ladder. Below the gun deck was the cargo hold, where the passengers kept most of their food stores and other supplies, including most of their clothing and bedding. It stored the passengers' personal weapons and military equipment, such as armor, muskets, gunpowder, shot, swords and bandoliers. It also stored tools and equipment required to build settlements and prepare meals in the New World. Some Pilgrims, including Isaac Allerton and William Mullins, traded goods aboard the ship that were most likely were stored in the cargo hold. There was no toilet on Mayflower, and passengers and crew were thus forced to devise their own accommodations. Gun-deck passengers most likely employed buckets as chamber pots, fixed to the deck or bulkhead to steady them while at sea. Mayflower was heavily armed; her largest gun was a brass minion cannon that weighed approximately and could shoot a cannonball almost one mile (1,600 m). She also had a saker cannon of about and two base cannons that weighed about and shot a three-to-five-ounce ball (85–140 g). She carried at least ten pieces of ordnance on the port and starboard sides of her gun deck: seven cannons for long-range purposes and three smaller guns often fired from the stern at close quarters that were filled with musket balls. Jones unloaded four of the pieces to fortify Plymouth Colony. == Mayflower officers, crew, and others ==

According to author Charles Banks, the officers and crew of Mayflower consisted of a captain, four mates, four quartermasters, surgeon, carpenter, cooper, cooks, boatswains, gunners and about 36 men before the mast, a crew of approximately 50. The entire crew stayed with Mayflower in Plymouth through the winter of 1620–1621, and about half of them died during that time. The remaining crewmen returned to England on Mayflower, which sailed for London on , 1621. == Legacy ==

Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States. The American national holiday of Thanksgiving originated from the first Thanksgiving feast held by the Pilgrims in 1621, a prayer event and dinner to mark the first harvest of the Mayflower settlers. Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge commemorated the compact as an event of great importance in American history: , 1920–21 With 20 Mayflower historical societies throughout the country, the celebration was expected to last throughout 1920. A world's fair to commemorate the anniversary had been planned years earlier but was canceled in the aftermath of World War I. The US Mint issued a Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar that portrays the ship on its reverse and Bradford on its obverse. 400th anniversary, 2020 For the 400th anniversary of Mayflowers landing in 2020, numerous organizations planned celebrations to mark the voyage, and festivities celebrating the anniversary took place in various New England locations. Celebrations were also planned in England and the Netherlands, where the Pilgrims had resided in exile preceding their voyage, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of some commemorative celebrations. To mark the anniversary, an unmanned Mayflower autonomous ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean, navigated by an AI captain designed by IBM. The Harwich Mayflower Heritage Centre hoped to build a replica of the ship at Harwich, England. Some descendants of the Pilgrims sought a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience to commemorate their ancestors. In a charity event, a full-scale replica of Mayflower was burned in Great Torrington in Devon, England on 28 August 2021, a year later than originally planned. According to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, there are "35 million Mayflower descendants in the world". Use of "Mayflower" The SS Ruslan, a ship of the Third Aliyah from Odessa that docked in Jaffa in 1919 and has been described as the "Israeli Mayflower" for its cultural importance in the development of Israeli culture since on board of the Ruslan were several pioneers of Israeli culture. The phrase "return of the Mayflower" is often used to refer to significant events involving Americans returning by ship to England. George Henry Boughton used this phrase for his 1871 painting, as did Bernard F. Gribble, the latter of which depicts US Navy destroyers entering British waters as the United States joined the allied forces in World War I. ==See also==