The Mayflower

Mayflower : The Journey, the People, and the Ship

 

The Journey
How would you have liked to travel on a small ship with over 100 other people, all their belongings, and possibly some farm animals—for 66 days? That's what the English people we know today as the “Pilgrims” did in the year 1620, on a ship called Mayflower.

Mayflower set sail from England in July of 1620, but had to turn around twice because Speedwell, the ship it was traveling with, kept leaking. It finally got underway on September 6, leaving the leaky Speedwell behind.

The ocean was full of dangers. As a ship traveling alone, Mayflower could have easily been attacked and taken over by pirates. It could have been damaged by storms, or even sunk to the bottom of the sea. People could have fallen overboard and drowned. Some of the passengers could have gotten sick or died.

Well, a few of these things actually did happen! Mayflower wasn't taken over by pirates—the ship sailed on a northern path across the Atlantic to avoid them. However, she was damaged by a bad storm halfway to America. This storm caused one of the large wooden beams supporting the frame of the ship to crack. Fortunately, one of the passengers had a “great iron screw,” which raised the beam back into place so that the ship could continue on. In another storm, a young passenger, John Howland, was swept right off the ship and into the ocean! He grabbed onto of one of the ship's ropes (or lines) and was pulled back onto the ship.

Although many people were seasick on the trip, only one person died. It was a sailor who had been very mean to the passengers, taunting them about their seasickness. The colonists thought that he died because God was punishing him for being cruel to them.

One person was born during the journey as well. Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to her first son, named Oceanus, on Mayflower. Another child, Peregrine White, was born to Susanna White, after the ship arrived in New England. It must have been very difficult to give birth on a moving ship, with so many people around, after being seasick for so many days.

After over two-months at sea, the English colonists finally arrived at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620. A few weeks later, they sailed up the coast to Plymouth, and started to build their town where a group of Wampanoag people had lived before (a sickness had killed most of them). They lived on the ship for a few more months, rowing ashore to build houses during the day, and returning to the ship at night. Many people began to get very sick from the cold and the wet — it was December! About half the people on Mayflower died that first winter from what they described as a “general sickness” of colds, coughs and fevers.

Finally, in March of 1621, there were enough houses that everyone could live on land. After a long, hard voyage, and an even harder winter, Mayflower set sail back to England on April 5, 1621.

The Ship and the People
The ship that brought the English Colonists to New England in 1620 was not at all like the cruise ships that many people travel on today. Mayflower didn't have private cabins with windows and beds for each person. There were no TV's, air conditioners, fancy meals, shops, or swimming pools. Traveling on the ocean 400 years ago was a very different experience than it is today.

Most ships at that time were merchant ships. This means that they were made for carrying cargo, like barrels of food or clothing, or big pieces of wood, from one place to another to be sold. Before Mayflower sailed to New England, it had been sailing around Europe carrying wine and cloth. This cargo was probably stored in the lower decks of the ship, in one big open storage area. There were no windows on this deck because windows might let in seawater, and then all the cargo would get wet. A little water would leak in anyway, so this area was always cold, damp, and dark.

The storage deck also had very low ceilings. They didn't need to make the decks very high because barrels and boxes weren't very tall . The ship was built this way to save space for the decks where the sailors lived and to make the ship safer. A ship that was too tall might tip over and sink in the water.

The crew (sailors and officers of the ship) lived on the upper decks. There were about 26 crewmembers on Mayflower on the journey from England. The Master, in charge of sailing the ship, was Christopher Jones (we would call him “captain” today.) He probably had his quarters, or living space, at the back of the ship, called the stern. This was the driest and most comfortable area on the ship.

The common sailors, or regular workers, had their quarters at the front of the ship, or bow, in a room called the forecastle. The forecastle, or fo'c'sle , wasn't a pleasant place to sleep or eat. It was constantly hit by waves, so it was always wet and cold. The sailors would have to get used to the swaying and pitching of the ship because it was at its strongest here (like being on a roller coaster all the time!) Also, most of the men would be going to the bathroom at the head, which was at the very tip of the bow. So it wasn't very clean.

There were also officers on Mayflower, who were responsible for sailing and navigating the ship. They probably lived in between the Master and the common sailors. Their quarters weren't as nice as the Master's cabin, but not as awful as the where the common sailors had to live.

So where did the passengers live on Mayflower? The ship carried 102 men, women and children in 1620 on its only trip to New England. That's right, they all had to live in the dark, damp, cold cargo decks down below the crew's quarters! The passengers were the cargo!

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