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Voyage of the mayflower.

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The  Mayflower  was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton.  The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands.  They hired a ship called the  Speedwell  to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the  Mayflower .  The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia.  The  Speedwell  departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the  Mayflower  waiting for them.  The  Speedwell  had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up.

On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America.  But the  Speedwell  began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12.  The  Speedwell  was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21.  After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the  Speedwell  again began to leak.  Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the  Speedwell  behind.  The  Mayflower  would go to America alone.  The cargo on the  Speedwell  was transferred over to the  Mayflower ; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home.  Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded  Mayflower . 

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Finally, on September 6, the  Mayflower  departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America.  By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half.  The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620.  The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness.  But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous.  Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them, it was not safe to use the ship's sails.  The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York.  The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination.  They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands.  All things considered, the  Mayflower  was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees.

As the  Mayflower  approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9.  The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation.  However, as the  Mayflower  headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked.  The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south, they would just stay and explore Cape Cod.  They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor.  The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation.  On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings.

Trying to Leave England

The Mayflower attempted to depart England on three occasions, once from Southampton on 5 August 1620; once from Darthmouth on 21 August 1620; and finally from Plymouth, England, on 6 September 1620.

Voyage to America

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, on 6 September 1620 and arrived at Cape Cod on 9 November 1620, after a 66 day voyage.

Heading to Northern Virginia

After sighting Cape Cod, the Mayflower heads south hoping to reach the mouth of the Hudson River in modern-day New York (then a part of Northern Virginia), but were forced back to Provincetown Harbor in Cape Cod after encountering treacherous seas.

Trying to Leave England

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  • The Mayflower Voyage

How the Mayflower prepared for its historic transatlantic voyage

It was truly a journey into the unknown for the passengers and crew who boarded the Mayflower in Plymouth on 16 September 1620.

They were unaware of the horrors the Atlantic Ocean would throw at them, how long they would be at sea, and what awaited them if and when they landed in North America.

As with any long trip, preparation is key - and the colonists had spent many months leading up to their departure gathering provisions and supplies that would last them during their voyage and beyond.

The fact that the Speedwell was deemed unseaworthy right at the last minute must have thrown any plans they had into complete disarray.

One can only image how cramped and crowded conditions would have been on the Mayflower with more than 100 passengers on board and provisions to match.

That the ship made it to its destination at all (albeit slightly off course) is nothing short of a miracle.

What provisions were on board the Mayflower?

why was the mayflower voyage important

It was thought that the colonists did not document any of the items they took with them, with historians taking an educated guess as to what was on board by using a provisions list put together by Captain John Smith .

Smith was a buccaneer, an explorer, an author and one of the leaders of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America.

He was clearly interested in the Mayflower expedition, writing that 70 gentlemen merchants and tradesmen came together to fund it.

In 2012, Caleb Johnson, Simon Neal, and Jeremy Bangs began to transcribe and study a rare manuscript in the possession of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants which it believed was written by one of the investors in the colonist’s joint-stock company.

This historic document contains several lists of suggested provisions that the group should bring with them.

Here are some of the key items believed to have been on board the Mayflower.

What did passengers eat on the Mayflower?

why was the mayflower voyage important

One of the key locations the Mayflower stopped en route to America was Southampton - and it was here that the passengers and crew would have acquired a number of useful provisions.

One notable passenger who was already in the city at this time was John Carver, who would have gone around to the various markets in different parts of the city.

The butchers’ market was on the site of the old friary, and it was called the Butchers’ Shambles, where the group would have got their salted meats, their meats tongues (which is what they called ox tongues) and these would have been preserved in salt so they would survive the voyage.

Carver would have then gone to the fish market, which was at the time in front of St Michael’s Church in St Michael’s Square.

Interestingly, the fish that was being sold in the market had actually travelled from Newfoundland and been salted down to preserve it, so this would have been the type of fish they’d have been picking up to take back to America with them.

Other provisions are likely to have included biscuits, butter, cheese, mustard seed, oats, peas, rice, sweet oil, vinegar and wheat.

They had to eat the food they brought until they could plant and harvest in North America, where they would eventually have also caught and ate fish and wild game.

What did passengers drink on the Mayflower?

why was the mayflower voyage important

The other thing that people also needed when they were going on these long voyages was to make sure they had things to drink.

Though they could collect rainwater during the journey, water was not as healthy back then as it is today, and so most people liked to take beer or ale on ships.

During the two weeks the group remained in Southampton, they would have had a really good opportunity to stock up.

Beer-making was a big industry in the city, and they used to make it in industrial quantities so that it could be put on the ships and used for voyages.

Just near to West Quay is a place that was known as the Beer House and is now called the Duke of Wellington – and it was here that the Pilgrims would have gone to get not only beer, but also French brandy and Dutch gin.

What did the Mayflower passengers wear?

why was the mayflower voyage important

One Mayflower traveller who certainly would have been popular with his fellow passengers was William Mullins .

A prominent businessman, Mullins is believed to have run a successful shoe-making business and took with him on the ship 250 pairs of shoes and 13 pairs of boots - enough for twice the number of people on board!

William was one of six people from the town of Dorking in Surrey, together with his wife, Alice; his son, Joseph, and his daughter, Priscilla.

The Mullins family took with them to America their manservant, Robert Carter, and they were joined by another man named Peter Brown, who is thought to have been related.

Sadly, only Priscilla and Peter Brown survived that dreadful first winter.

Following the tragic death of her family, Priscilla inherited all of her father’s shares in Plymouth Colony, all of his possessions, and all of his stock of shoes

In 1622, Priscilla married John Alden , a cooper from Harwich in Essex, and the couple went on to have 10 children.

It is likely the colonists would also have taken with them plenty of clothing - including caps, garters, shirts, slippers, stockings, suits, and waistcoats.

What tools were on the Mayflower?

why was the mayflower voyage important

Not only were tools important for the journey across the Atlantic, but they were also needed for when the group landed in North America to start a new life.

With a view to eventually building homes and harvesting crops, the Mayflower would have been stocked with axes, chisels, hammers, handsaws, hoes, nails, shovels, spades, and many other useful items.

Of all the tools on board, though, only one turned out to be absolutely critical to the success of the Mayflower voyage.

A terrible storm near the midway point of the journey is thought to have cracked one of the huge wooden beams that supported the frame of the ship.

It was so bad that the crew came close to making the decision to return to England.

Fortunately, one of the colonists had brought with them a metal jackscrew that they had purchased in the Netherlands to help with the construction of the new settler homes when they arrived in North America.

This “great iron screw” helped raise the broken beam back into place so that the ship could continue.

Of course, the colonists would have also taken arms, such as armour, swords, belts, powder and shot in preparation for what may have been deemed hostile acts.

What household items were on the Mayflower?

why was the mayflower voyage important

The Mayflower would have contained many items for cooking and cleaning, such as pots, pans, skillets, dishes, spoons, soap, and much more.

There would have also been bedding including sheets, rugs and blankets.

Were there any animals on the Mayflower?

why was the mayflower voyage important

Records show that two dogs joined the Mayflower passengers and crew on their historic journey across the Atlantic.

The first mention of these early canine settlers appeared in Mourt's Relation, a 17th-century publication which describes the lives of the colonists.

John Goodman, who travelled on the Mayflower, brought with him his Mastiff and English Springer Spaniel.

Though the dogs' names are not known, they have been recognised in history for helping the group to establish Plymouth Colony - becoming essential members of the settlement, providing protection and accompanying Goodman on hunting missions.

On one occasion, they even helped save their owner's life when Goodman and fellow traveller Peter Browne got lost during an early expedition.

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General Society of Mayflower Descendants

The Mayflower Voyage

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It is hard for us in this present age to imagine what it would be like not to know certain things – not know how wide the oceans were; – not to know how far Virginia was from Plymouth, England; – or from Plymouth, Massachusetts, for that matter; not to know, even, how far a ship would sail in a day or a week, and not to have any maps or charts of a good degree of accuracy for any country or any ocean on earth. All of this lack of knowledge was the situation 1620. 

Mayflower Ship at Dawn

Now, of course, there was much sea-faring in 1620. Ships plied the English Channel, sailed up and down the coast of France and Spain and swarmed all over the Mediterranean. But this was mainly coastal, short voyage work. In any trip the length of time out sight of land was minimal. This is not to say that there were not trans-ocean voyages in the period. The gold trade between Spain and Mexico had flourished for years. The cost in lives and ships and cargo had been and continued to be terrific. The many recent treasure finds from sunken Spanish galleons in waters near Florida bear vivid witness to the awful costs of these many passages. These costs in men, ships and cargo were due in great degree to the ignorance of the crews and skippers and navigators. In those days the practitioners of the sea-faring art had no ability to determine accurately, on a day to day basis, their ship’s position or what dangers lurked.

So much for the state of the art in 1620. What do we find as to how many of these meager skills were possessed by Captain Jones and his crew aboard the Mayflower?

We know that Captain Jones was a part owner of the ship and had been Captain for several years. He had just returned from Spain, hauling a cargo of wine. He had traded at least once across the North Sea to Norway from Newcastle. He was probably as well suited to, and trained for, an Atlantic crossing as the average sea captain of the day. To understand just what is involved in making a crossing, whether back then or today, it is necessary to get a bit technical and describe some of the essentials of navigation and passage making in any age.

maritime compass - early nautical navigational tool

When out of sight of land, the navigator depends on several aids to keep his ship on course and to position her daily on the surface of the ocean. Then, as now, the first aid is the compass. With it he can shape his course steadily toward his destination. All of us know something about a compass, and how its north-seeking needle points to magnetic north. The discovery and use of the magnetic properties of ferrous compounds goes way, way back in time. One of the first references to a mariner’s compass is found in the writings of one Alexander Neckam, born in A.D. 1157. We are sure its use antedated this date by years and perhaps centuries.

The next aid is the traverse board . This is a kind of abacus and memo pad. A circle at the top of the board is divided by radii into the thirty-two points of the compass. Each of these radii has eight holes, evenly spaced out from the center, into which pegs can be fitted. The bottom of the board is divided by eight horizontal lines and these lines also have holes evenly spaced across their length for pegs. Then, as now, a steering watch was four hours long, divided into eight 30 minute glasses of time. At the turning of each glass (every thirty minutes), the quartermaster put a peg in the proper radius hole to represent the average course steered during the period and the proper glass number of the watch period. 

Traverse board - early nautical navigational tool

This sounds quite impressive, but the results were far from anything but rough guesses. They were at least better than no guess at all. So, with compass, traverse board and log-ship, the 1620 navigator kept his accompt book of daily positions – his dead reckoning positions. Even today, with much better compass, perfect timing devices, and excellent speedometers, the position of a ship at sea by dead reckoning may be off by a substantial mileage each day.

This leads us to the next aid the navigator must have. He must have a way of figuring his position from day to day by means independent of course or speed. The aid he uses to do this is an altitude measuring device with which he can determine the altitude of some heavenly body and, with suitable calculations, find from this measurement his location at sea. In 1620 the aids used were either an astrolabe or a Davis backstaff . 

astrolabe - early nautical navigational tool

This is where Celestial Navigation comes into the picture. Celestial Navigation, in all its mathematical and astronomical theory, is rather complicated but its basic principal is simplicity itself. Poets have referred to the heavenly bodies – the sun, moon, stars and planets – as the “Lighthouses of the Sky” This poetic fancy happens to be strict, practical fact. Consider for a moment. We are on the revolving earth. It revolves from west to east, and this motion makes it appear to us that the sun and all other bodies rise in the East and set in the West. Imagine, if you will, a string running from the center of the earth to the center of a heavenly body. This string would cut the surface of the earth at a certain point at a certain time. This point is called the “GP” of the body. “GP” stands for “geographical position.” It keeps changing from moment to moment as the earth turns. Today the GP’s of fifty-seven navigational stars, four planets, the moon and the sun are listed in a Government publication issued annually and called the Nautical Almanac. This book lists these positions in terms of degrees North or South of the equator, and degrees West of an arbitrary line running through Greenwich, England. They are listed for every second of time of the year.

In 1620 no such handy volume existed. Tables of the “Declination of the Sun” for every day of the year were available, however. Declination is merely the astronomer’s name for latitude and refers to the latitude on the earth’s surface of the GP of the body. Now, remember a heavenly body moves westward in the sky rapidly, about 15 degrees an hour, but it moves slowly north or south. So a daily table of the sun’s declination is useful.

Let’s review a bit now. The aids available to Captain Jones in 1620 were the compass , the traverse board , the log ship and, of course, the second glass and hourglass. With these he did the best he could to keep his accompt book , or Log of daily dead reckoning position – his “DR.” He used his Davis backstaff or astrolabe to measure the altitude of the sun. Today he would use a sextant. This beautifully accurate instrument in the hands of a skilled observer is capable of measuring altitude angles to one six-hundredth of a degree. Captain Jones with his instrument would do well to get within a degree – some six hundred times less accurate – on board the heaving and pitching Mayflower !

davis backstaff - early nautical navigational tool

To do his best to keep from building up high cumulative errors in his dead reckoning accompt , Captain Jones practiced celestial navigation each day at high noon. High noon merely means that the sun is due north or due south of you, and is going from “rising” to “setting.” At this moment we say it is on your meridian – not A.M. or P.M. Captain Jones’s celestial navigation consisted of measuring the sun’s altitude at his best estimate of its highest point for the day.

This high point occurs at high noon (by a sun dial or compass). To make this measurement, the backstaff was probably used because it was a bit simpler on shipboard than an astrolabe. From the altitude of the sun, so obtained, and the declination for the day from the tables, Captain Jones could get his latitude by a simple calculation. We might mention here that Captain Allan Villiers carried a replica of a Davis backstaff on the voyage of Mayflower II and reported it quite useless for any meaningful accuracy. Even allowing Jones much greater accuracy than Villiers, due to more practice, it is doubtful if the latitudes obtained were much better than the DR figures which themselves were pretty awful by present day standards.

Now note that this bit of celestial observation only checked latitude. No attempt to obtain positions East or West of your departure was possible by celestial observations at that time. It would be more than a hundred years later before longitude could be found at sea.

We have mentioned the sun only as a method to obtain latitude. For centuries navigators had known that the altitude of the Pole Star, Polaris, roughly equaled the latitude of the observer. At the time of the Mayflower voyage, it is likely that Captain Jones felt he could get better results from observations of the sun. Of course, he might have observed either from time to time.

There is a whole set of circumstances in seventeenth century sailing which must not be overlooked. We must remember the life aboard a ship at those times– the almost unbelievable discomfort, the monotony, week after week after week, the cold, the wet, the poor food coupled with hard physical labor. This terrible environment made it practically impossible to exercise the careful judgment and carry out the accurate calculations which, then as now, are absolutely essential in the practice of navigation. There is no wonder that whole fleets of ships were sunk and wrecked on unfamiliar shores, and that a seaman’s life was hard and short in those far off times.

The Mayflower made history by carrying the Pilgrims to the New World. But never forget – SHE WAS ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES!

– November 1980 – VoL 46 No. 4

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why was the mayflower voyage important

The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

  • Early Modern

Why Did the Mayflower Set Sail and What Happened to its Crew?

why was the mayflower voyage important

Sarah Roller

16 sep 2021, @sarahroller8.

why was the mayflower voyage important

One of the most famous moments in American history is the departure of the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, on 16 September 1620. She bore 102 passengers who would become the founders of the Plymouth colony and the first Europeans ever to settle in what is now Massachusetts.

Though this was not the first successful English colony to be founded in America ( Jamestown had been around since 1607) the hardships that the settlers faced, combined with the uniquely well-documented nature of the voyage and subsequent survival, ensures that it remains the most famous of all early expeditions to America.

why was the mayflower voyage important

Religious roots

The driving force behind the  Mayflower’s  voyage was the rise of Puritanism. A hard-Protestant Calvinist ideology that had began to win converts at the end of the 16th century, the new sect believed the Church of England to be too weak and too Catholic for their liking, and were open in their separatism.

This inevitably brought them into conflict with the crown, the force behind the English Church, and in 1607 the most prominent Puritans were forced to flee to Holland, which had recently thrown off the rule of Catholic Spain and was famous for its tolerance.

In the Dutch city of Leiden William Bradford, an 18 year-old Puritan from Yorkshire, began to record the struggles of his fellows in this new country, and how they increasingly began to fear that they would lose their identity if they stayed any longer.

Salvation in the New World

After ten years, Leiden’s Puritan congregation met for a crisis meeting, and acknowledged that with their children growing up more and more Dutch and learning the customs and manners of the new country over the old, they faced extinction with the rise of the next generation.

why was the mayflower voyage important

A 20th century depiction of Puritans on board the Mayflower.

Image Credit: Public Domain

Other issues also presented themselves, as many of the Protestant Puritans, who were literally preaching to the converted in Holland, wished to spread the word of God to far-off places, whilst preserving their English culture and customs. Only one alternative really presented itself.

Since the success of the Jamestown colony in America, that dangerous and unknown land was now, despite the risks, a place where a new future might be made.

Joining the Jamestown settlers would not be enough. Many of the Puritans believed that the company of too many other non-Puritan Englishmen would simply re-create the problems that had caused them to move to Holland in the first place. If the plan was to work, then a whole new colony would have to be founded: a risky undertaking. This, however, was the final decision.

Permission granted

In 1619 John Carver, a prominent member of the congregation, travelled back to London to try and secure land grants, allowing him and his people to settle the land north of the existing Virginia territory, which was already being called New England. In return for promising that his religion would not become the official one of the new colony, it was granted. Preparations then began quickly.

why was the mayflower voyage important

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbour, by William Halsall

Two ships were leased, the small  Speedwell,  which had seen service against the Spanish Armada , and the larger  Mayflower,  which would carry the bulk of the settlers to their new home. The  Speedwell  picked up the Leiden congregation in July 1620, before returning to England to continue the journey alongside the  Mayflower. 

Shortly after leaving Dartmouth however, it became clear that the  Speedwell  couldn’t be trusted to tackle the Atlantic (there were some suspicions that its crew had deliberately sabotaged it to avoid making the voyage) and its passengers were transferred aboard the  Mayflower,  which finally set sail for the New World on the 16 September.

A rough journey

The sea voyage began smoothly enough, before powerful storms changed the situation, carrying one crew member overboard and damaging the ship enough to force the captain to make a decision about turning back, despite being over halfway to his destination. There were a few families on board and one child, named Oceanus, was born during the crossing.

After 65 days of cold, seasick misery, land was finally sighted on 9 November, which was good cause for a fervent prayer of thanksgiving. It was what is now known as Cape Cod, and lay within the New England territory, though difficult shoals forced the settlers to turn back and anchor in Provincetown Harbour. There they signed the famous Plymouth Compact , which is seen by many as the world’s first ever modern-style constitution,

It was there that the adult males on the ship swore to help each other by any means necessary and to uphold purely democratic rule, and voted for John Carver as their first governor. All this was recorded by Bradford, who had made the journey with his congregation.

why was the mayflower voyage important

Only the beginning

Once the landings and building began, so did the real hardship. Out of a ships’s population of 102, only 2 had died during the crossing, but this first winter would claim the lives of over half. Viciously cold temperatures and snowfall, disease and scurvy from the terrible food aboard the  Mayflower  meat that most of the passengers quickly fell ill, and at one point only 6 were fit to nurse the rest. There was a very real possibility the colony would fail before it had even really begun.

No help came from the natives, who had already been brutally treated by European explorers and were dying themselves of the strange diseases that had come from across the Atlantic with the newcomers. Despite these terrible conditions, work continued, however.

Heading further west, the settlers found a place on 21 December 1620 (now celebrated in Massachusetts as Forefounder’s Day) that would become the settlement of Plymouth. In January permanent dwellings were constructed, though initially single men had to share with families to conserve space.

By February, however, the rudimentary settlement was complete, a remarkable achievement considering that there were only 47 colonists left by March. Carver was one of the dead, and was replaced by Bradford, who was still only 31, and had recorded the death of his wife Dorothy in his journal in December.

He went on to serve as governor of the Colony until 1632. Today Plymouth, a thriving town of 58,000 people, is known as “America’s hometown.”

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Jonathan Ridley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Painting of a sailing ship aground unloaded by a horse and cart.

It is July 1620 in Southampton, England. Arriving into port is the Speedwell, a ship carrying a small religious group from the Netherlands. Anchored just off of the west quay of the town is the Mayflower, a larger ship with more passengers aboard, which is loading for a transatlantic voyage with the Speedwell. The passengers have permission and funding to start a trading settlement in the Colony of Virginia (which at the time extended far further than the modern state of Virginia), under the control of the Virginia Company.

Despite the historical significance of the Mayflower, we know very little about the ship and its voyage. We only know its name from a document written three years after the voyage . At the time the Mayflower was not notable or special and – because some of the passengers faced persecution for their religious activities – they probably kept a low profile.

Evidence suggests that it was “ burden about nine score ” or 180 tons. “Burden” was a term for cargo capacity, while a “tun” was a large cask of wine. The ship could therefore carry the equivalent of 180 tuns of wine.

There are unfortunately no illustrations or plans of The Mayflower from the time, so we don’t even know for certain what the ship looked like. We do know, however, that ships around this time were built to a series of similar rules (outlined in Swedish shipbuilder Fredrik Henrik af Chapman’s Architectura Navalis Mercatoria , published in 1768). We can therefore begin to estimate the proportions for the cargo carried, but with a caution that the rules varied between shipwrights, with many details not recorded and drawings not made.

In fact, the famous 17th-century diarist Samuel Pepys tells us that shipwrights “depended on their eyes … never pretending to the laying down of a draught, their knowledge lying in their hands so confusedly”. Based on typical proportions from the time we could expect that The Mayflower would have been around 30 metres in hull length and about 7.5 metres in breadth.

English merchant vessels were also expected to form a navy to protect the country if required. From similar vessels of the time, we can therefore reasonably assume that The Mayflower had raised “castles” at the bow and stern. A height advantage from the castles would have been useful in battle to fight and resist boarding.

The ship would also have carried a small number of cannon – mainly for self-defence. These would have been on a cramped gun-deck (where the passengers would also live) with gun-ports.

On August 15 1620, the two ships sailed for the New World from Southampton, but as soon as they departed, the Speedwell started leaking badly (despite some repairs already having been made in Southampton), requiring a diversion to Dartmouth to make repairs.

In mid-September 1620, they again departed England, but around 300 miles west of Land’s End the Speedwell leaked badly again, with the ship’s master complaining that “his ship was so leaky, as he must bear up, or sink at sea”. They returned to Plymouth, transferred as many passengers and stores as possible to the Mayflower, and set sail west again on 16 September. At the time it was suggested that the leaks were a plot by the captain and crew of the Speedwell to avoid a long and dangerous voyage.

Replica of the Mayflower sailing surrounded by other smaller ships.

Navigation in the 1600s was comparatively more advanced than many other sciences at the time. Sailors could measure their heading with magnetic compasses, and their speed with a log that was trailed behind the ship.

By measuring the height of the North Star above the horizon with instruments that were the forerunners of sextants, sailors could determine their position north of the equator (known as the “latitude”). However, on a rolling ship under cloudy skies taking accurate measurements and finding accurate positions was far from easy.

Knowing your position west or east of a point (“longitude”) was far more complicated. It could be found from measuring the local time when the sun reached its highest point in the sky, and comparing it to the time at a known point on land, as the local noon occurs four minutes later for every degree of longitude travelled west around the world.

Sadly clocks at the time were nowhere near accurate enough to measure this, and accurately measuring the height of the sun was difficult. Instead, sailors at the time used a combination of the compass, hourglasses and a log to record direction, time and speed, calculating a resulting position based on “ dead reckoning ”, which would become more inaccurate as the voyage progressed.

Despite some treacherous storms that nearly destroyed the vessel, The Mayflower arrived in North America after 66 days’ sailing. The ship was, however, just off Cape Cod, slightly north of the Colony of Virginia (which at that time extended north to Long Island Sound) where the colonists had permission to settle.

They tried sailing south, but encountered treacherous reefs and breaking waves and, low on provisions, they wisely headed north again, coming ashore initially at Provincetown, Massachusetts on November 21. But having landed outside of the Colony of Virginia, they had no contract to settle, or laws to follow.

Their solution was to draw up a democratic agreement (known as the Mayflower Compact ), which governed them independently from England until they could obtain permission to settle where they landed. This was the first western example of a consensual government without a monarch. If their navigation had taken them just 65 miles further south, they would have landed in the Colony of Virginia, and history may have been different.

The Mayflower itself returned to England the following year, but sadly her Captain died in 1622. Left on the riverbank of the Thames, she fell into disrepair and was in such a poor condition that she was sold for parts in 1624. Ironically the Speedwell lasted far longer, sailing from Southampton to Virginia and back in 1635.

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A Fresh Take on the Mayflower’s History

On the 400th anniversary of the ship’s landing in Plymouth, Mass., the commemoration will be more inclusive than in the past.

why was the mayflower voyage important

By Tanya Mohn

This article is part of our latest Museums special section , which focuses on the intersection of art and politics.

Paula Peters remembers the last major anniversary of the historic voyage in 1620 of the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Mass. It was in 1970. She was 12. “It did not go well,” recalled Ms. Peters, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe . Frank James , whose Wampanoag name was Wamsutta, was invited to give a speech, but was prevented from delivering it because the event’s organizers “didn’t like what he had to say.”

This year’s 400th anniversary promises to be different. “It will include all the things Frank James wanted to say and then some. It’s an opportunity to take our story out of the margins and onto an international platform,” said Ms. Peters, who through SmokeSygnals , a marketing and communications agency, curated and consulted for exhibitions and programs on both sides of the Atlantic. “What’s most important to stress is simply that we are still here.”

The Wampanoag Nation, encompassing the federally recognized Aquinnah and Mashpee tribes, are equal partners in the yearlong commemoration with Plymouth 400 in the United States, Mayflower 400 in the United Kingdom, and Leiden 400 in the Netherlands, umbrella groups for museums and organizations that are hosting Mayflower-related events in their respective regions.

“We are changing the narrative at this moment in history,” said Michele Pecoraro, executive director of Plymouth 400 . Today, she said, “it is all about a shared history among four nations, that looks at it from that perspective probably for the first time. The Wampanoag involvement is a first. The Netherlands involvement is a first. Those added perspectives offer more of a balanced picture.”

Johanna C. Kardux, program director of American Studies at Leiden University, said this year’s initiative offered Native Americans a voice and cast the Pilgrims in a new light. Highlighting that the Pilgrims were migrants “provides a more complete perspective,” said Dr. Kardux, co-organizer of the forthcoming “ Four Nations Commemoration, 1620-2020: The Pilgrims and the Politics of Memory ” in Leiden.

Most Americans may know the basics of the Mayflower’s journey to the New World, but many are not aware that among the passengers who wanted to break away from the Church of England were a group of Pilgrims who went first to the Netherlands. In 1609, the city government of Leiden, which had a tradition of offering shelter to asylum seekers, granted some 100 English religious refugees permission to settle there. They stayed for more than a decade before some of them departed aboard the Speedwell in 1620. The first stop was Southampton, England, where they transferred to the Mayflower. Leiden Pilgrims, in fact, initiated the trans-Atlantic voyage.

“One of the fascinating aspects for me” said Michaël Roumen, executive director of Leiden 400 , describing the Leiden of the early 1600s, “is as the Pilgrims walked cobblestone streets, they could be standing in the market next to a young Rembrandt.” (His school was a stone’s throw from where most Pilgrims lived.)

“There were religious refugees from all over Europe; there were public debates about predestination and civil liberties. It was a whirlpool of economic, academic and cultural dynamism,” Mr. Roumen said, that helped shape the New England political culture, especially the separation of church and state, one of the cornerstones of American democracy. Civil marriage was one of the innovations that the Pilgrims took with them from Holland to America. “The Pilgrims arrived in Leiden as religious refugees, tortured and imprisoned in their native England, but left as colonists,” he said. “It’s complicated.”

Throughout 2020, destinations in the United States , the United Kingdom. and Leiden will highlight their permanent exhibitions, walking tours, trails, historic sites and buildings, like the jail in Boston, England, where Pilgrims were held and tried, as well as a roster of special events, festivals, art exhibitions, public art installations, and activities like finding Pilgrim relatives at the “Ancestor Booth” in Leiden, where visitors can explore their heritage. Nine U.S. presidents are considered descendants of a Leiden Mayflower passenger, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt, both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush; roughly 30 million people can claim a connection to a Mayflower descendant.)

Here is a sampling of exhibitions:

The United States

“ ‘Our’ Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History ” is a traveling exhibition that recounts the story of the Wampanoags with stops at museums, libraries, schools and businesses in Massachusetts through 2020. “It’s a nice mix of historical and modern day information,” said Ms. Pecoraro of Plymouth 400. “It’s significant having native people tell their history, their story, in their voice.”

Seven chapters trace historical developments, from the 1614 capture of Native American men by a European explorer to sell as slaves in Spain, to a trend embraced by the American Indian Movement for tribes to observe a National Day of Mourning instead of Thanksgiving.

The United Kingdom

“ Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America ,” April 3 to Oct. 24. The traveling exhibition will stop at different Mayflower linked places. The centerpiece will be a wampum belt commissioned for the show made of some 5,000 handcrafted beads by more than 100 Wampanoag artisans.One aim is to raise awareness about the missing wampum belt from the 17th century belonging to a Wampanoag chief known as Metacom. The belt, said to have been about nine feet long and nine inches wide, was taken and sent to England during what was known as King Philip’s War between Native Americans and colonists, Ms. Peters said. “There’s the hope that through the exposure, we will be led to our ancestors’ Wampum belt, lost for more than three centuries,” she said.

The Box , a new cultural and heritage complex, will open in Plymouth with “Legend and Legacy” on May 16 through Sept. 18, 2021. The exhibition will explore the origins of the Mayflower journey, the way it has been commemorated through generations, and the conflict with and the impact of colonization on the indigenous population. The show will feature some 300 items from 100 museums, libraries and archives from around the world. Rare objects include 17th century books, engravings and artifacts, like the first Bible to be printed in America and a document that gave the Mayflower colonists English permission to settle in America.

The Netherlands

“ Pilgrims to America — And the Limits of Freedom ,” March 27 to July 12 at the Museum De Lakenhal. Almost 200 paintings, engravings, books, maps, muskets, pots and pans — original works of art and everyday items — detail the Pilgrims’ journey from 1604 to 1621. Interactive experiences include magnets with words like “freedom” and “repression” to inspire visitors to create poems.

“ First Americans: Honouring Indigenous Resilience and Creativity ” — Museum Volkenkunde (National Museum of World Cultures), May 15 through July 24, 2021, will feature about 60 Native American works: paintings, photographs, textiles, jewelry, and fashion pieces, some commissioned for the exhibition. “More than 12 living artists contributed,” said Henrietta Lidchi, the museum’s chief curator, including Tulsa-based Yatika Starr Fields, who painted a huge mural “Accommodating strength, Our land, Our hearts” in public during seven days at the museum, and Phoenix-based print maker Jacob Meders, whose works will reflect early European depictions and stereotypes of indigenous people.

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The Pilgrims’ Miserable Journey Aboard the Mayflower

By: Dave Roos

Updated: September 6, 2023 | Original: November 18, 2020

The Miserable Journey Aboard the Mayflower

Sailing for more than two months across 3,000 miles of open ocean, the 102 passengers of the Mayflower—including three pregnant women and more than a dozen children—were squeezed below decks in crowded, cold and damp conditions, suffering crippling bouts of seasickness, and surviving on meager rations of hardtack biscuits, dried meat and beer.

“The boat would have been rolling like a pig,” says Conrad Humphreys , a professional sailor and skipper for a recreated sea journey of Captain William Bligh. “The smell and stench of illness and sickness down below, and the freezing cold on deck in the elements, it would have been pretty miserable.”

The Mayflower , like other 17th-century merchant ships, was a cargo vessel designed to haul lumber, fish and casks of French wine—not passengers. The 41 Pilgrims and 61 “strangers” (non-Separatists brought along as skilled craftsmen and indentured servants) who boarded the Mayflower in 1620 made for unusual cargo, and their destination was no less foreign. The ship’s square rigging and high, castle-like compartments were suited for short hops along the European coastline, but the Mayflower’s bulky design was a handicap for sailing against the strong Westerly winds of the North Atlantic.

“The journey would have been painfully slow with many days of being blown backward rather than forward,” says Humphreys.

Incredibly, though, all but one of the Mayflower’s passengers survived the grueling, 66-day ordeal, and the Pilgrims even welcomed the arrival of a newborn baby halfway through the journey, a boy aptly named Oceanus. The Pilgrims’ joy and relief on catching sight of Cape Cod on the morning of November 9, 1620 was recorded by their leader William Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation .

“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," wrote Bradford.

From Two Ships to One

Pilgrims boarding the Mayflower

The Pilgrim’s arduous journey to the New World technically began on July 22, 1620, when a large group of colonists boarded a ship called the Speedwell in the Dutch port city of Delfshaven. From there, they sailed to Southampton, UK, where they met the rest of the passengers as well as a second ship, the Mayflower. The two ships disembarked from Southampton on August 6 with hopes of speedy crossing to northern Virginia.

But just hours into the journey, the Speedwell began to leak badly, and the two ships were forced to pull in at Dartmouth. The Speedwell was finally ready to sail again on August 24, but this time only made it 300 miles before springing another leak. The frustrated and exhausted Pilgrims docked at Plymouth and made the difficult decision to ditch the Speedwell. Some of the Pilgrims also called it quits in Plymouth, but the rest of the passengers and cargo from the Speedwell were transferred to the already overcrowded Mayflower.

The traditional account of the Mayflower journey begins on September 6, 1620, the day it sailed from Plymouth, but it’s worth noting that by that point the Pilgrims had already been living aboard ships for nearly a month and a half.

Life on the Gun Deck

The Mayflower

The Mayflower was about 100 feet long from stem to stern and just 24 feet wide. In addition to its 102 passengers, the Mayflower carried a crew of 37 men—sailors, cooks, carpenters, surgeons and officers. The crew was housed in small cabins above the main deck, while the Pilgrims were consigned to the “gun deck” or “between decks,” a suffocating, windowless space between the main deck and the cargo hold below.

“These lower decks were very cramped, cold and wet, with low ceilings no more than five feet tall,” says Humphreys. “And all around you, people are getting seasick. It’s really not a very nice place to be.”

The passengers shared the gun deck with a 30-foot sailboat called a “shallop” that was stored below decks until their arrival in the New World. Between the masts, storage rooms and the shallop, the total available living space for 102 people measured only 58 feet by 24 feet. The passengers practically slept on top of each other, with families erecting small wooden dividers and hanging curtains for a semblance of privacy.

“The crew would occasionally let some of the passengers up on deck to get some fresh air, but on the whole, the Pilgrims were treated like cargo,” says Humphreys. “The crew were worried about people being swept overboard. The journey was difficult enough for seasoned sailors, nevermind novices like the Pilgrims.”

Biscuits and Beer

Mealtime on the Mayflower brought little to celebrate. The cooks would have run out of fresh food just days into the journey and instead relied on salted pork, dried fish and other preserved meats. Since regular bread would spoil too quickly, they served hardtack biscuits, jaw-breaking bricks made from flour, water and salt.

“The beverage of choice for many of these old voyages was beer,” says Humphreys, explaining that casks of fresh water tended to go “off” during long storage. “Even young children were given beer to drink.”

Subsisting on small rations of salted meats and beer, the Pilgrims would have been malnourished, dehydrated, weak and susceptible to scurvy. When Humphreys recreated Bligh’s 60-day crossing of the South Pacific, he and his crew ate only 18th-century rations—about 400 calories per person per day—and each man lost 25 percent of their body weight.

Stormy Weather and the 'Great Iron Screw'

Bradford’s short description in Of Plymouth Plantation of life aboard the Mayflower is the only surviving account of the crossing, but it includes enough harrowing details to understand how close the journey came to disaster.

After a month of relatively calm seas and smooth sailing, the Mayflower encountered the first of an unrelenting series of North Atlantic storms that buffeted and battered the ship for weeks. The crew was forced on several occasions to lower the sails and let the Mayflower bob helplessly in the towering waves.

“They were encountered many times with cross winds and met with many fierce storms with which the ship was shroudly shaken, and her upper works made very leaky,” wrote Bradford, “and one of the beams in the midships was bowed and cracked, which put them in some fear that the ship could not be able to perform the voyage.”

Whether Bradford was talking about a cracked mast or another type of wooden beam is unclear, but the damage was serious enough for the Pilgrims to call a meeting with the captain to discuss turning back. But then something remarkable happened.

“…There was a great iron screw the passengers brought out of Holland, which would raise the beam into his place,” wrote Bradford, describing an object that was either the screw of a printing press or a large jack to raise the roof of a house. Either way, it worked, and the Pilgrims “committed themselves to the will of God and resolved to proceed.”

An Unexpected Swim

During one of those brutal storms, when the Mayflower was forced to draw its sails and “hull for divers days,” one of the passengers apparently became desperate for a breath of fresh air. Bradford wrote that a “lusty young man” named John Howland wandered onto the main deck and “with a seele [or pitch] of the ship [was] thrown into the sea.”

By some miracle, Howland was able to grab hold of the halyards hanging overboard and hold on for dear life, “though he was sundry fathoms under water,” wrote Bradford. Working quickly, the crew pulled Howland close enough to the ship to snag him with a hook and haul the foolhardy young man back onto the deck. Bradford proudly reported that after a short sickness, Howland not only recovered, but “lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.”

The Death of William Butten, the First of Many

Pilgrims land on Plymouth, Mayflower

Bradford makes only passing mention of the one death on the Mayflower. A young boy named William Butten, an indentured servant to one of the Pilgrims, fell ill during the journey and died just a few days shy of reaching the New World.

Given the dangers of the journey and the rough conditions aboard the Mayflower, it was a miracle that only one person out of 102 perished on the 66-day voyage. Sadly, the Pilgrims’ fortunes changed for the worse once they landed at Cape Cod in early November. The passengers and crew continued to live on the Mayflower for months as permanent dwellings were constructed on the shore.

With each passing week, more and more Pilgrims and their “stranger” companions succumbed to bitter cold and disease. By spring 1621, roughly half of the Mayflower’s original passengers had died in their new home. Among them was little Oceanus. In one piece of good news, another baby named Peregrine, the first Pilgrim baby born in the Plymouth Colony , not only survived the brutal winter, but lived on for more than 80 years. 

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HISTORY Vault: Lost Colony Of Roanoke

In 1590, the settlers of Roanoke—the first English colony in the New World—were discovered to be missing. The only clues: five buried chests and the word "Croatoan," a Native American village nearby, carved on a post. Archaeologists search for answers.

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Facts About the Mayflower

10 Facts About the Mayflower Ship

The Mayflower was the vessel that brought the first English Puritans, who are now commonly referred to as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England to the continent of North America in 1620.

The voyage of the Mayflower and the people who boarded it had a crucial part in the early colonization and settlement of the Americas. The Pilgrims were looking for religious freedom and a better living when they made the journey to the New World.

The ship had set sail with the intention of docking in northern Virginia; but, adverse weather conditions and mistakes in navigation caused it to instead arrive in what is now the state of Massachusetts, in the region that is now home to the city of Plymouth.

The Plymouth Colony was the first successful and long-lasting English settlement in New England, and it was founded by the Pilgrims. Plymouth was in the southeastern part of the state of Massachusetts.

The voyage of the Mayflower and the settlement of the New World by the Pilgrims is an important chapter in the annals of United States history, and it is commemorated annually on Thanksgiving .

Mayflower Facts

1. at about 180 tons, she was considered a smaller cargo ship.

The Mayflower was considered a smaller freight ship and was not specifically constructed for ocean journeys. It was largely used to transport goods between England and Bordeaux, such as clothing and wine.

It was, however, outfitted with the required rations and supplies to complete the journey across the Atlantic and was deemed capable of meeting the voyage’s demands.

Despite its small size and lack of ocean crossing experience, the Mayflower successfully brought the Pilgrims to the New World.

2. The Mayflower was a popular name for ships at the time.

During the time of James I (1603-1625), there were 26 vessels carrying the name Mayflower in the Port Books of England; it is unknown why the name was so popular.

To minimize confusion with the numerous other Mayflower ships, the identity of Captain Jones’ Mayflower is based on data from her home port, her tonnage (estimated 180-200 tons), and the master’s name in 1620.

Also Read: Facts About the Mayflower Compact

It is unknown when or where the Mayflower was built, though she was designated as “of London” in later documents. In the Port Books of 1609-11, she was identified as “of Harwich” in the county of Essex, which was also the birthplace of Mayflower master Christopher Jones in 1570.

3. It was intended for two ships to travel to the New World

The Mayflower set sail from London in the middle of July 1620 and proceeded downstream on the Thames to Southampton, where it met up with the Speedwell.

It was intended for the two ships to travel to the New World together, with the Mayflower transporting the majority of the pilgrims to their new home and the Speedwell acting as a supply ship along the journey.

However, it didn’t take long before it became clear that the Speedwell wasn’t seaworthy, so the two ships were forced to make multiple stops for repairs along the trip.

In the end, it was determined that the Mayflower would be the sole vessel upon which the Pilgrims would continue their journey, while the Speedwell would sail back to England.

Also Read: Pilgrims Facts

Because of this setback, the voyage of the Pilgrims was prolonged by several weeks, and there were fewer people on the Mayflower as a result.

In spite of this, the Pilgrims persisted on their voyage until they finally reached their destination in the New World. Once there, they established the Plymouth Colony and began a new life in the Americas.

4. There are no Admiralty court documents connected to the pilgrim fathers’ voyage of 1620

There is no subsequent record that directly refers to Jones’ Mayflower after 1616 until 1624. This is remarkable for a ship trading to London because it would not normally vanish from the records for so long.

There are no Admiralty court documents connected to the pilgrim fathers’ voyage of 1620, which could be due to the odd way the pilgrims were transferred from Leyden to New England, or some of the period’s records may have been lost.

By 1620, Jones, together with Christopher Nichols, Robert Child, and Thomas Short, was one of the ship’s owners. In the summer of 1620, Thomas Weston chartered her from Child and Jones to embark on the Pilgrim journey.

Because of his membership in the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, Weston played an important role in the Mayflower journey, and he finally traveled to the Plymouth Colony personally.

5. A second Mayflower sailed from London in 1629.

In 1629, another ship called the Mayflower set sail from London to the Plymouth Colony.

A group of settlers set out on this expedition to establish a new settlement in the New World. Unlike the Pilgrims’ famous voyage on the Mayflower in 1620, which is regarded one of the most renowned episodes in American history, this latter voyage is less well remembered.

However, it was a significant event in the history of the Plymouth Colony, contributing to the settlement’s and its existence in the New World.

The voyage of the Mayflower in 1629, as well as numerous comparable voyages conducted by other ships and groups of settlers, shaped the history of the United States and its formation as a nation.

6. The Mayflower was square-rigged ship with a beakhead bow .

The Mayflower was square-rigged, which implies that its masts were rigged with square sails. Square-rigged ships were popular because of their stability and capacity to withstand strong winds, making them ideal for long trips across the open ocean.

The Mayflower also had a beakhead bow, which was common on many ships of the time. This bow was distinguished by a sharp, curved prow designed to cut through the water more efficiently.

The Mayflower also had a high, elevated stern, which allowed the ship to carry more cargo while also protecting the crew and passengers from rough weather.

These architectural elements, combined with the ship’s robust build and skilled crew, aided the Mayflower’s memorable trip across the Atlantic and safe arrival in the New World.

7. The number of crew on board was less than 50.

The Mayflower’s commanders and crew included a captain, four mates, four quartermasters, a surgeon, carpenter, cooper, cooks, boatswains, gunners, and roughly 36 men before the mast, for a total of about 50 men.

The whole crew remained with the Mayflower in Plymouth during the winter of 1620-1621, and almost half of them died during that time. The surviving crewmen traveled back to England on the Mayflower on April 15, 1621.

8. In 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s landing was celebrated.

The 400th anniversary of the Mayflower arrival occurred in 2020, marking four centuries since the famed ship and its passengers arrived on the shores of what is now Massachusetts, United States.

Special displays, historical reenactments, and educational programs, as well as ceremonies and other events honoring the bravery and endurance of the Pilgrims and the crew of the Mayflower, were held to commemorate the event.

The Mayflower landing and the creation of the Plymouth Colony are significant events in American history because they signify the commencement of permanent English colonization in the New World as well as the birth of one of the United States’ earliest colonies.

The 400th anniversary of the Mayflower landing was an opportunity to reflect on history and remember the Pilgrims and their trip to the New World.

9. The government created a Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar, with the ship depicted on the reverse and passenger William Bradford depicted on the obverse.

The United States government struck a unique commemorative coin, the Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar, to mark the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival.

The coin depicts the Mayflower on the reverse and a portrait of William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims’ leaders, on the obverse.

The currency was issued in 1920 and extensively disseminated as a symbol of the country’s acknowledgement of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ importance in American history.

The Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar is a noteworthy piece of American numismatic history, and coin collectors prize it for its historical significance and rarity.

The release of this coin helped to raise attention to the Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ story, and it serves as a lasting homage to their bravery, dedication, and endurance in making the momentous voyage to the New World.

10. A replica of the Mayflower, built in 1956, can be seen at the Pilgrim Memorial State Park in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The Mayflower model can be seen in the Pilgrim Memorial State Park in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This replica was created in 1956 to honor the ship’s remarkable voyage and importance in early American settlement.

The replica is a full-scale wooden sailing ship that was built utilizing traditional shipbuilding processes and materials to the greatest extent possible.

It serves as an educational and historical resource for visitors, allowing them to learn about the Pilgrims’ and early settlers’ hardships and experiences in the New World.

The replica is a renowned tourist attraction in Plymouth and a significant symbol of American history and tradition.

Mayflower 400: Why is the ship so important?

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why was the mayflower voyage important

It was the voyage which paved the way for colonisation of the New World, as just over 100 pilgrims and 30 crew set sail for the East coast of America in 1620 from Plymouth's Barbican.

More than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to the crew and passengers of the Mayflower.

16 September 2020 marked 400 years since the start of the voyage of the Mayflower.

So who were the Pilgrims and what about the indigenous people who already lived in America and whose lives would be so affected by the new arrivals?

The Pilgrims

The Pilgrim Fathers, as they became known, originated as a group of Puritans from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. These were Christians who were unhappy with the Church of England and wanted worship, and the way the church was run, to be more like that described in the Bible.

Known as Separatists, they were quite extreme and refused to attend services, for which they were fined.

They fled England and settled in the Netherlands but many were unhappy and saw the chance for freedom and a new life in the New World or America.

They came back to England with a view to travelling there and the plans for the Mayflower became a reality.

The Pilgrims were not the only ones on board. After delays and disagreements they ended up making up only 37 of the 102 passengers.

The others were on the ship for a range of reasons – looking for a better future for them and their families, opportunities to own land and to make money, the attraction of adventure and for a few, an escape from persecution or even prosecution.

There were also around 30 members of the crew.

The sailing of the Mayflower

The colonists had planned to travel from England in two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. Unfortunately the Speedwell was unseaworthy and had to be abandoned.

The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on 16 September 1620 and took 66 days to cross the Atlantic.

The ship was beset by winter storms and sometimes it was so bad that the crew could not use the sails and the ship simply drifted. A passenger was even washed overboard but fortunately was rescued. One woman, Elizabeth Hopkins, gave birth to a baby boy, aptly named Oceanus.

Plymouth historian Chris Robinson says the weather was horrendous for the crossing.

What were the weather forecasts like at the time of the Mayflower crossing?

The Mayflower finally dropped anchor off Cape Cod on 11 November 1620. Soon afterwards, Susannah White gave birth to a son, the first English child born in the colony. He was named Peregrine, from the Latin for pilgrim.

A whole new world

The pilgrims had permission from the King of England to settle on land near the mouth of the Hudson River - present-day New York - but instead chose to stay where they had landed in New England.

They signed the 'Mayflower Compact' so that order could be kept and the colonists would work together. It was an agreement that is said to have influenced the Declaration of Independence.

Isabelle Richards works at the Pilgrims gallery at the Bassetlaw Museum in Nottinghamshire where they dress up in period costume to enhance the experience. She says that although there had been visitors from Europe before, these wanted to settle rather than plunder.

The pilgrims started to build their new homes at what now is Plymouth Bay, while still living on the ship. Arriving in November, they were unprepared for the harsh weather - only half of the original pilgrims survived the first winter at Plymouth.

Sue Allen, Pilgrim historian, tells the story of Francis Eaton from Bristol, one of the survivors, who encountered terrible hardships.

Without the help of local indigenous people, the Wampanoag, to teach them how to gather food and other survival skills, the colonists might all have died.

The following winter, the colonists celebrated their first harvest alongside the Wampanoag, which became the first Thanksgiving, which is celebrated every November in the United States.

The Wampanoag

The Wampanoag are native Americans and have lived in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for more than 12,000 years - long before the pilgrims arrived.

Their name means People of the First Light.

In 1600s they had around 40,000 people across 67 villages but were struck by disease - which was almost certainly of European origin.

The Great Dying, as it was called, killed tens of thousands of them, weakening the Wampanoag nation politically and economically. One of the villages wiped out was Patuxet, which was taken over by the pilgrims to become Plymouth Colony.

In 1621, an English-speaking Wampanoag man called Tisquanto taught the pilgrims how to plant corn, fish and gather nuts and berries.

In March 1621, the pilgrims made a peace treaty with Massasoit, one of the tribes' leaders. In November the famous first Thanksgiving took place - although it was more a case of a harvest feast that the Wampanoag turned up at, than the turkey affair it is today.

The peace treaty lasted for 50 years until there was a rebellion against the colonists' control, known as King Philip's War. Around 40% of the surviving tribe were killed and many were sold into slavery.

The tribes largely disappeared over the years but there are still 4,000-5,000 of the Wampanoag alive today, mainly living near a reservation at Martha's Vineyard.

In an interview with Mayflower 400, Paula Peters from the Wampanoag Nation Advisory Board says it is ironic that a group of people who were seeking the space to worship in freedom should want to control those who were already there.

Nowadays many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the pilgrims and other European settlers to America.

To them, Thanksgiving is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the destruction of their cultures.

The Mayflower Legacy

More than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to the Mayflower. They include celebrities and US presidents.

Actors Clint Eastwood, Bing Crosby, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Richard Gere were all descended from those aboard, along with presidents Zachary Taylor, Franklin D Roosevelt and George Bush Sr and George W Bush.

Here is genealogist Brenton Simons, himself a Mayflower descendant:

One major legacy of The Mayflower is its role in pioneering democracy. Adrian Vinken, the Chair of Mayflower 400 says, "America as a democracy was seeded by the voyage of the Mayflower and the people who were on it and why they made that voyage.

"It became, via the Declaration of Independence the most powerful democracy in the world and a model for other democracies."

IMAGES

  1. Mayflower

    why was the mayflower voyage important

  2. The 400th Anniversary of the Departure of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower

    why was the mayflower voyage important

  3. The incredible story of the Mayflower: the ship that shaped America

    why was the mayflower voyage important

  4. What It Was Really Like Sailing On The Mayflower

    why was the mayflower voyage important

  5. The incredible story of the Mayflower: the ship that shaped America

    why was the mayflower voyage important

  6. Pilgrims and progressives: The story of the Mayflower voyage

    why was the mayflower voyage important

COMMENTS

  1. The Mayflower

    The Mayflower was a merchant ship that carried 102 passengers, including nearly 40 Protestant Separatists, on a journey from England to the New World in 1620.

  2. Mayflower

    Mayflower. The Mayflower at sea; hand-coloured woodcut. Some of the Pilgrims were brought from Holland on the Speedwell, a smaller vessel that accompanied the Mayflower on its initial departure from Southampton, England, on August 15, 1620. When the Speedwell proved unseaworthy and was twice forced to return to port, the Mayflower set out alone ...

  3. Mayflower

    Mayflower was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, Mayflower, with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reached what is today the United States, dropping anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on November 21 [O.S. November 11], 1620.

  4. The Pilgrims and the Mayflower—History and Facts

    The Mayflower was a merchant ship that usually carried goods such as wine, but its most famous cargo was the group of pilgrims destined to settle in Plymouth. The ship first set sail in August 1620 alongside another merchant ship called the Speedwell. After the Speedwell sprouted a leak, both ships returned to port, and all passengers crammed ...

  5. The Mayflower Story

    The Mayflower set sail on 16th September 1620 from Plymouth, UK, to voyage to America. But its history and story start long before that. Its passengers were in search of a new life - some seeking religious freedom, others a fresh start in a different land. They would go on to be known as the Pilgrims and influence the future of the United ...

  6. What is the Mayflower and why is it celebrated 400 years later?

    Well it's all down to a ship that left England on this day 400 years ago. On 16 September 1620, the ship called the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth - on board were more than 100 passengers all ...

  7. Mayflower Compact

    Mayflower Compact, document signed on the English ship Mayflower on November 21 [November 11, Old Style], 1620, prior to its landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts.It was the first framework of government written and enacted in the territory that is now the United States of America.. Rough seas and storms prevented the Mayflower from reaching its intended destination in the area of the Hudson ...

  8. Mayflower Compact

    The Mayflower Compact would not only provide the Plymouth Colony with its form of government and legislation but would influence later important documents in United States' history such as state constitutions, the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. It is recognized as one of the most important documents in world history in setting a precedent for the establishment of a ...

  9. Voyage

    The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton.The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the ...

  10. How the Mayflower prepared for its historic transatlantic voyage

    With a view to eventually building homes and harvesting crops, the Mayflower would have been stocked with axes, chisels, hammers, handsaws, hoes, nails, shovels, spades, and many other useful items. Of all the tools on board, though, only one turned out to be absolutely critical to the success of the Mayflower voyage.

  11. The Mayflower Voyage

    Navigation in 1620: The. Mayflower. Was One of the Lucky Ones. From Diamond Jubilee Edition 27. Robert A. Harper. Presented at a meeting of the Myles Standish Colony of the Florida Society, in Naples, Florida. W hen I first thought of discussing the art of navigation in 1620 and how Captain Christopher Jones of the Mayflower probably employed ...

  12. The Pilgrims

    The Mayflower Voyage . ... Leaders such as Bradford, Standish, John Carver, William Brewster and Edward Winslow played important roles in keeping the remaining settlers together. In April 1621 ...

  13. Why Did the Mayflower Set Sail and What Happened to its Crew?

    Religious roots. The driving force behind the Mayflower's voyage was the rise of Puritanism. A hard-Protestant Calvinist ideology that had began to win converts at the end of the 16th century, the new sect believed the Church of England to be too weak and too Catholic for their liking, and were open in their separatism.

  14. Mayflower Timeline

    The Mayflower lands in the region of modern-day Massachusetts, North America, bringing the pilgrims to the New World. 11 Nov 1620. The Mayflower Compact is signed by the pilgrims establishing democratic government of the Plymouth Colony. 1621 - 1622. The pilgrims establish the Plymouth Colony with the help of Native Americans who teach them how ...

  15. Mayflower 400: the science of sailing across the ocean in 1620

    Despite the historical significance of the Mayflower, we know very little about the ship and its voyage. We only know its name from a document written three years after the voyage. At the time the ...

  16. A Fresh Take on the Mayflower's History

    Paula Peters remembers the last major anniversary of the historic voyage in 1620 of the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Mass. It was in 1970. She was 12. "It did not go well ...

  17. The truth behind the myth: the colonial legacy of the Mayflower voyage

    The other passengers aboard the Mayflower were servants and independent settlers hired by the Merchant Adventurers Company who financed the voyage and the prospective colony. However, it was the elders of the separatist congregation who governed the new colony in its formative years and their religious beliefs shaped how it was run.

  18. The Pilgrims' Miserable Journey Aboard the Mayflower

    Pilgrims boarding the Mayflower for their voyage to America. The Pilgrim's arduous journey to the New World technically began on July 22, 1620, when a large group of colonists boarded a ship ...

  19. 10 Facts About the Mayflower Ship

    The voyage of the Mayflower in 1629, as well as numerous comparable voyages conducted by other ships and groups of settlers, shaped the history of the United States and its formation as a nation. 6. The Mayflower was square-rigged ship with a beakhead bow. The Mayflower was square-rigged, which implies that its masts were rigged with square sails.

  20. Mayflower 400: Why is the ship so important?

    One major legacy of The Mayflower is its role in pioneering democracy. Adrian Vinken, the Chair of Mayflower 400 says, "America as a democracy was seeded by the voyage of the Mayflower and the ...

  21. Mayflower at 400: What we all get wrong about the Pilgrim Fathers

    It's a subtle but important difference. Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans, who arrived 10 years later, were not separatists. They had remained in the Church of England hoping to banish its ...