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The Mayflower Story
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Have you heard about the Mayflower?
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It was one of the most famous ships ever to sail the seas, but do you know the story of why that voyage became so important that people even talk about it today?
It’s a story of faith and courage, tragedy and triumph.
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Where it all began
Back in the 1600’s in England, King James I was in charge of the church as well as the country. He tried to make it law that everyone worshipped the way he wanted them to, within the Church of England. But small groups of people were beginning to hear about other ways of worshipping. New ideas were spreading in from mainland Europe rejecting the ceremonies and other aspects of the Church of England because they were too similar to the Catholic church. The new way of thinking was to keep worship very simple, but to meet in secret as they did was illegal. These new groups, who became known as the Separatists, realised they had to leave England to have the freedom to worship as they wished.  ​It took a few attempts for the Separatists to escape to the Netherlands (Holland), but they eventually settled in a city called Leiden which didn’t have strict laws on worship at all. For a few years they were happy there, but eventually they realised they should leave as the situation was changing politically.  They were also afraid their children were becoming too much like the Dutch children. But where could they go? Information had been coming out of the New World- the area now known as the United States of America- and the Separatists thought that would be a good place to go for the religious freedom they wanted. They bought a small ship called the Speedwell in Holland, and arranged to hire another from England to take them across the ocean. This second ship, the Mayflower, was a little bigger, but still not very big at all. The idea was that the Speedwell would stay with them in the New World, while the Mayflower would return to England after delivering the Separatists.
King James
Preparing to sail
​​​It was now the summer of 1620, and the two ships met in Southampton, England, to take on provisions and sail together. Apart from the Separatists, there was another group of passengers, merchants and craftsmen, who were going to a make the journey. In fact, their money was necessary to make the whole project a success. These other passengers became known as the ‘Strangers’ and the Separatists were called the ‘Saints’. All seemed well, when the two ships set off on August 15, 1620. However, by the time they got down the coast to Dartmouth, the Speedwell was leaking! There was nothing they could do but stop in the harbour and have it repaired. Eventually, they were on their way again, and were quite a long way out ( by the Scilly Isles) when the Speedwell began leaking again. They had no choice but to turn back again, but this time they went into Plymouth. Some people think the crew had damaged the Speedwell on purpose, so they didn’t have to make the voyage! By this time, it was getting very late in the year- September was too late to be setting off on this voyage, because they had already been delayed by many weeks. But now they decided the Speedwell was not strong enough to make the journey, so they put what provisions and passengers they could onto the larger ship, the Mayflower, to continue their voyage.
Leiden
The Mayflower was overcrowded
With all the extra people, the Mayflower was now very overcrowded. The passengers were confined to an area between the decks which was smaller than a tennis court. There were 102 passengers now on board. Many of the travellers were constantly seasick. They couldn’t wash themselves or their clothes, and they were damp and cold all the time, with water dripping between the floorboards above. Can you imagine what that was like? And the voyage took 66 days. On average it only went about as fast as a person can walk.  It must have been horrible for the people on board. It was a miracle that most of the passengers survived the sailing. One of the crew members did die on the trip, but he had been very horrid to the travellers, swearing at them and threatening to throw them overboard. The Saints saw his death as God standing up for them against this horrible young man! And another amazing thing happened when a man called John Howland accidentally fell overboard in a storm. Luckily, there was a rope dangling in the water, and he grabbed hold of it and got pulled back on deck. He lived to be a very old man! Other things happened, too. At one point, there was a storm so bad that one of the main beams of the Mayflower actually cracked. They were too far out to sea to turn back, so managed to prop the beam up and safely continue their journey. Sadly, they did lose one of the passengers, a young servant called William Butten, who died just as they were about to arrive in the New World. And a baby was born onboard, and they called him Oceanus.
The crowded Mayflower
A new home
The Mayflower had been blown off course and didn’t arrive where the passengers wanted to be, but they decided to stay where they had ended up- in the Cape Cod area of what we now know as Massachusetts. It took the passengers many weeks to investigate where to build their community, and in the mean time they came into contact with the local population of natives. It’s a very long, complicated story of how New Plymouth came to be, but the story of our little ship, the Mayflower, is almost at its end. The ship stayed in the harbour until the following spring, 1621, before heading back to England. Once it arrived back in London, it was tied up on the Thames and soon began to rot away until it was no longer able to sail. If they only knew then how important it would become in history, perhaps they would have tried to save it. Some people say that some of the timbers- including the beam that cracked - were used to build a barn in Buckinghamshire, but there is no proof. What happened to the passengers who stayed in the New World? Well, about half of them died that first winter. Most of the rest of them went on to have families, and 400 years later there are millions of people who are descended from these few brave people, who only wanted to have the freedom to worship in their own way. Americans still celebrate the Mayflower Pilgrims every year with their Thanksgiving holiday in November. It’s a remarkable story, isn’t it? And the Mayflower was a very special little ship!
