Mayflower (ship)
The Mayflower was a ship. It is most famous on its maiden voyage (first voyage) when pilgrims and other settlers travelled on it to the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts. The Mayflower set sail from England in July of 1620, but had to turn around twice because Speedwell, the ship it was traveling with, was leaking. It left on September 6 of the same year, leaving the Speedwell behind. The ship carried 102 men, women and children, who lived in the dark, damp, cold cargo decks below the crew's quarters. Many of them died on the voyage.
After over two months at sea, the English colonists arrived at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620. A few weeks later, they sailed up the coast to Plymouth, and started to build their town where a group of Wampanoag people had lived before (a sickness had killed most of them). They lived on the ship for a few more months, rowing to shore to build houses in the day, and returning to the ship at night. Many people began to get very sick from the cold and the wet. About half the people on the Mayflower died that first winter from common illnesses such as colds, coughs and fevers. In March of 1621, there were enough houses for everyone to live on land. The Mayflower set sail back to England on April 5, 1621.
In 1623, a year after Christopher Jones's death, the Mayflower was probably dismantled (taken apart) for firewood in England.
[change] Other Websites
- Mayflower II at Plymouth Plantation Museum
- Mayflower passengers from MayflowerHistory.com
- Mayflower history from MayflowerHistory.com
- Pilgrim Hall Museum of Plymouth, Massachusetts
- General Society of Mayflower Descendants
- The Mayflower And Her Log; Azel Ames, Project Gutenberg edition.
- The Straight Dope: "Did the Pilgrims land on Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer?"
- Mayflower Descendants Chart.
- Pilgrims and the Mayflower Mayflower Interior Pictured
