Plymouth, England, United Kingdom
Five members of the Hopkins family aboard: Stephen, Elizabeth, children Constance and Giles, by a former wife. Damaris and Oceanus [Oceanus born on voyage] by this wife, along with two servants.

Signing of the Compact

Mayflower
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For other uses, see Mayflower (disambiguation).

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882)
Career
Name: Mayflower
General characteristics
Tonnage: 180
Crew: about 25
The Mayflower was the famous ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from Southampton, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts (which would become the capital of Plymouth Colony), in 1620.[1]

The vessel left England on September 6 (Old Style)/September 16 (New Style),[2] and after a gruelling 66-day journey marked by disease, which claimed two lives, the ship dropped anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod (Provincetown Harbor) on November 11/November 21.[1] The Mayflower was originally destined for the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York City, at the northern edge of England's Virginia colony, which itself was established with the 1607 Jamestown Settlement.[3] However, the Mayflower went off course as the winter approached, and remained in Cape Cod Bay. On March 21/28, 1621, all surviving passengers, who had inhabited the ship during the winter, moved ashore at Plymouth, and on April 5/15, the Mayflower, a privately commissioned vessel, returned to England.[1] In 1623, a year after the death of captain Christopher Jones, the Mayflower was most likely dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe, London.[4]

The Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future US. With their religion oppressed by the English Church and government,[5] the small party of religious separatists who comprised about half of the passengers on the ship desired a life where they could practice their religion freely. This symbol of religious freedom resonates in US society[citation needed] and the story of the Mayflower is a staple of any American history textbook. Americans whose roots are traceable back to New England often believe themselves to be descended from Mayflower passengers.

Ship
The Mayflower was used primarily as a cargo ship, involved in active trade of goods (often wine) between England and other European countries,[6][7] (principally France, but also Norway, Germany, and Spain). At least between 1609 and 1622, it was mastered by Christopher Jones, who would command the ship on the famous transatlantic voyage, and based in Rotherhithe, London, England.[1] After the famous voyage of the Mayflower, the ship returned to England, likely dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe in 1623, only a year after Jones's death in March 1622. The Mayflower Barn, just outside the Quaker village of Jordans, in Buckinghamshire, England, is said to be built from these timbers, but this is likely apocryphal.[8]

Details of the ship's dimensions are unknown; but estimates based on its load weight and the typical size of 180-ton merchant ships of its day suggest an estimated length of 90–110 feet (27.4–33.5 m) and a width of about 25 feet (7.6 m).[6]

The ship probably had a crew of twenty-five to thirty,[7] along with other hired personnel; however, only the names of five are known, including John Alden.[7] William Bradford, who penned our only account of the Mayflower voyage, wrote that John Alden "was hired for a cooper [barrel-maker], at South-Hampton, where the ship victuled; and being a hopefull yong man, was much desired, but left to his owne liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here."[9]

[edit] Pilgrims' voyage

The Mayflower Memorial in Southampton.For more details on acquisition of the ship and the planning of the voyage, see Pilgrims.
Initially, the plan was for the voyage to be made in two vessels, the other being the smaller Speedwell, which had transported some of the Pilgrims embarking on the voyage from Delfshaven in the Netherlands to Southampton, England. The first voyage of the ships departed Southampton,[10] on August 5/15, 1620, but the Speedwell developed a leak, and had to be refitted at Dartmouth on August 17/27.

On the second attempt, the ships reached the Atlantic Ocean but again were forced to return to Plymouth because of the Speedwell's leak. It would later be revealed that there was in fact nothing wrong with the Speedwell. The Pilgrims believed that the crew had, through aspects of refitting the ship, and their behavior in operating it, sabotaged the voyage in order to escape the year-long commitment of their contract.[11]

After reorganisation, the final sixty-six day voyage was made by the Mayflower alone, leaving from a site near to the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England on September 6/16.[10] With 102 passengers plus crew, each family was allotted a very confined amount of space for personal belongings. The Mayflower stopped off at Newlyn in Cornwall to take on water. [12]

The intended destination was an area near the Hudson River, in "North Virginia". However the ship was forced far off-course by inclement weather and drifted well north of the intended Virginia settlement. As a result of the delay, the settlers did not arrive in Cape Cod until after the onset of a harsh New England winter. The settlers ultimately failed to reach Virginia where they had already obtained permission from the London Company to settle, due to difficulties navigating the treacherous waters off the southeast corner of Cape Cod.[13]

To establish legal order and to quell increasing strife within the ranks, the settlers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact after the ship dropped anchor at the tip of Cape Cod on November 11/21, in what is now Provincetown Harbor.[1]

The settlers, upon initially setting anchor, explored the snow-covered area and discovered an empty Native American village. The curious settlers dug up some artificially-made mounds, some of which stored corn while others were burial sites. The settlers stole the corn and looted and desecrated the graves,[14] sparking friction with the locals.[15] They moved down the coast to what is now Eastham, and explored the area of Cape Cod for several weeks, looting and stealing native stores as they went.[16] They decided to relocate to Plymouth after a difficult encounter with the local native Americans, the Nausets, at First Encounter Beach, in December 1620.

During the winter the passengers remained on board the Mayflower, suffering an outbreak of a contagious disease described as a mixture of scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis.[1] When it ended, there were only 53 passengers, just more than half, still alive. Half of the crew also died then.[1] In spring, they built huts ashore, and on March 21/31, 1621, the surviving passengers left the Mayflower.[1]

On April 5/15, 1621, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth to return to England,[1] where she arrived on May 6/16, 1621.[17]

[edit] Passengers
For more details on the passenger list, see List of passengers on the Mayflower.
For more details on the passengers that died aboard ship, see List of Mayflower passengers who died in the winter of 1620 - 1621.
For more details on descendants of the Mayflower company, see The Mayflower Society.
The Mayflower left England with 102 passengers and crew. One baby was born en route, and a second was born during the winter of 1620-1621, when the company wintered aboard ship in Provincetown Harbor. One child died during the voyage, and there was one stillbirth during the construction of the colony. Most of the passengers were Pilgrims fleeing persistent religious persecution, but some were hired hands, servants, or farmers recruited by London merchants.

These were the earliest permanent European settlers in New England. The Jamestown settlement in what is now Virginia was the first English settlement in what would become the United States.