Everything about Mayflower totally explained
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.
The vessel left England on
September 6, and after a gruelling 66-day journey marked by disease, the ship dropped anchor inside the hook tip of
Cape Cod (
Provincetown Harbor) on
November 11 (dates in
Old Style,
Julian Calendar; according to the
New Style Gregorian Calendar, the corresponding dates are
September 16 and
November 21).
However, the
Mayflower went off course as the winter approached, and remained in Cape Cod Bay (mapped in 1602 by
Gosnold).
On
March 21,
1621, all surviving passengers, who had inhabited the ship during the winter, moved ashore at Plymouth, and on
April 5, the
Mayflower, a privately commissioned vessel, returned to England (details below).
Ship
The
Mayflower was used primarily as a cargo ship, involved in active trade of goods (often wine) between England and other European countries,
(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. on
August 5,
1620, but the
Speedwell developed a leak, and had to be refitted at
Dartmouth.
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 crew had
sabotaged it in order to escape the year-long commitment of their contract.
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.
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 didn't arrive in Cape Cod till the onset of a harsh
New England winter. The settlers ultimately failed to reach Virginia where they'd already obtained permission from the
London Company to settle.
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, in what is now
Provincetown Harbor. sparking friction with the locals. They moved down the coast to what is now Eastham, and explored the area of Cape Cod for several weeks, looting and stealing as they went. They decided to relocate to Plymouth after a difficult encounter with the local native Americans, the
Nausets, at First Encounter Beach, in December of 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.
Passengers
The 102 passengers on the
Mayflower were the earliest permanent European settlers in New England. (The
Jamestown settlement was the first English settlement in what would become the United States.) Some of their descendants have taken great interest in tracing their ancestry back to one or more of these Pilgrims. (See
The Society of Mayflower Descendants and the "
List of passengers on the Mayflower" for a complete accounting. See also "
List of Mayflower passengers who died in the winter of 1620–1621".) Throughout the winter, the passengers spent time ashore preparing home sites and searching for food but partly remained based aboard the
Mayflower. Only about half of the settlers would still be alive when the
Mayflower left in the spring. Governor Bradford noted that about half the sailors died as well.
Mayflower II
After
World War II, an effort began to reenact the voyage of the Mayflower. With cooperation between
Project Mayflower and
Plimoth Plantation, an accurate replica of the original (designed by naval architect
William A. Baker) was launched in 1956 from
Devon, England, and set sail in the spring of 1957. Captained by
Alan Villiers, the voyage ended in
Plymouth Harbor after 55 days on June 13, 1957 to great acclaim.
The ship is moored to this day at State Pier in
Plymouth, and is open to visitors.
Popular culture
The
Mayflower voyage and the ship became famous as an icon of a perilous one-way trip to a new life, with many things named for it:
- The Mayflower is the emblem of the English football club Plymouth Argyle F.C., who are known as "The Pilgrims" (nickname).
- Songwriter Paul Simon mentions the ship in his "American Tune" (song).
- Yes member Jon Anderson & Vangelis (as "Jon & Vangelis") made a song about the ship called "The Mayflower" released on their album The Friends of Mr. Cairo.
- Folk/Rock singer Bob Dylan mentions the ship in his song "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" on the album Bringing It All Back Home.
- The space-shuttle parody in the movie is called Mayflower One.
- Mark Carew wrote a book titled 'Flight of the Mayflower' where NASA builds an intergalactic space ship (named the Mayflower) to travel to a new world due to the fact that Earth has become a place where terror, geo-political shift, ecological crisis and nuclear war are pandemic.
- The popular syndicated show, The Brady Bunch, had an episode revolving around the Pilgrims and the Mayflower, called, "The Un-Underground Movie"
Many Americans believe themselves to be descended from Mayflower passengers, for example that somebody's ancestors go "all the way back to the Mayflower".
While the Mayflower brought one early settlement, it can be compared to other settlements in North America:
The Mayflower sailed in 1620, but Virginia was settled in 1607 at Jamestown, 1610 at Hampton, 1611 at Henricus, 1613 at Newport News, 1613 at New Bermuda, and several other Virginia settlements which pre-date Plymouth. Virginia even had black indentured servants by 1619 and a population of about 4,500 in 1623. Also, Albany, New York, was settled by the Dutch in 1614, Santa Fe, New Mexico by the Spanish in 1610, and St. Augustine, Florida dates back to the 16th century.
Considering Puerto Rico, the towns of Caparra and Old San Juan would be the first European settlement in the United States, in 1508.
Centuries earlier, 500 years before the voyage of Christopher Columbus, the Vikings, from Scandinavia, had established a permanent settlement in Greenland (see: Western Settlement (Greenland)) from 1000 AD until circa 1500. That settlement lasted 500 years, longer than the entire colonial history of the United States. In addition, the archeological site at L'Anse aux Meadows, on the coast near the northern tip of Newfoundland in Canada, has also been identified as a 10th or 11th century Viking settlement site.
However, with the Mayflower voyage in 1620, more emphasis is placed on the so-called "First Thanksgiving" and the peaceful co-existence with the native Wampanoag tribe, as issues of civilized culture, among the 13 original colonies of the U.S.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mayflower'.
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