The Mayflower was one of the most famous ships in the earliest phase of the English colonisation of the Americas. It was the ship that took the religious refugees who became known as the 'Pilgrims' to what would later be called Massachusetts.

The Mayflower was a small 180 ton cargo ship, probably of Dutch style and known as a fluyt. It's main deck was about 80ft /25m long. It was built in Harwich, Essex, England. The master of the ship, Christopher Jones, was also from Harwich, and by the time of the Atlantic voyage, he had been sailing her for 11 years and so was very experienced. At this time, too, the home port of the ship was Rotherhithe, Surrey, a part of the port of London.

On the voyage to the Plymouth Colony in 1620 it was almost certainly overcrowded, with 135 people (105 passengers + crew of about 30) embarking from Plymouth, England.

The most important single act at the end of this epic journey was the signing of the Mayflower Compact, a set of democratic rules that set out how each person would help in the founding of the colony.

The Pilgrim ship Mayflower was a kind of carrack, with high castles at both ends. These were designed originally to give protection by providing good firing positions in case of attack, and they also gave the main deck some protection from the weather. However, the castles also made it very difficult to sail against the wind, and that was just the joinery that had to be made to get from Europe to America. This is one reason the voyage from England to America took more than two months. (on its return journey the Mayflower took only one month because the wind was behind her).

By 1620, the Mayflower was nearing the end of the usual 15-year working life of an English merchant ship of that time. But it also meant she was relatively cheap to hire. After her return she was scrapped.

There were three masts and three levels: main deck, gun deck, and cargo hold. There were small cabins for the officers at the rear of the main deck and a place for cooking and the crew near the bow.

The gun deck was the place where the passengers were put. Gun deck The passengers were put on the gun deck (usually a cargo deck). It's ceiling was just 5ft high and it was 50 ft x 25 ft. 100 people had to cram in here. To get up to the main deck, passengers had to climb a wooden ladder.

There was no toilet on the Mayflower, and everyone used a bucket whose contents were tipped over the side.

The passengers kept most of their precious belongings in the the lowest level - the cargo hold. In particular it stored all the tools that the Pilgrims would need, as well as all the equipment and utensils needed to prepare meals in the New World. There wet also some live animals, including dogs, sheep, goats, and poultry. Horses and cattle came later. The ship also carried two boat and some canon, because the Pilgrims feared that they might need to defend themselves against enemy European forces, as well as the natives.

Speedwell and Mayflower

The first 65 passengers began their journey from Rotherhithe on the the Mayflower in the middle of July 1620. It then went into the English Channel and on to the port of Southampton. This is where it waited for its companion ship, the Speedwell which had on board a party of Puritans from Holland. The ships met on July 22, and set sail for America on August 5. However, shortly afterwards, the Speedwell began to leak, forcing them ships to put in for repairs at Dartmouth (near Plymouth), Devon.

They made a new start, but after leaving Lands End, England, 200 miles astern, the Speedwell spring another leak. By now they were already late, and winter was approaching fast. There was no chance of going back for repairs and starting again or the winter Atlantic storms might wreck both ships. So they decided to return to Plymouth, abandon the Speedwell and take some of the Speedwell passengers onto the Mayflower, leaving the remainder to return to Holland. After the is the Mayflower set sail again. Furthermore, because of the delays, the Mayflower's provisions were already quite low, and the passengers had already spend as much time on board as they had expected for the entire crossing - and they still had the crossing ahead of them!

The Mayflower finally sailed from Plymouth on September 6, 1620 with what passenger Bradford called "a prosperous wind".

It was, however, not an easy trip to navigate. Not only did the storms cause some of the mast parts to break and need repair, but they only had a compass, a log and line system to measure speed in nautical miles per hour (knots). Time was measured with an hourglass. So they never really knew where they were across the ocean, and so had no real means of knowing when they would arrive.

On November 9, 1620, they sighted present-day Cape Cod. It was hundreds of miles north of where they had intended to land – Virginia, and for where they had permission to colonise. With no chance of getting to Virginia due to storms, on November 11 the settlers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact.

Even though there was sickness on board, it was not until Monday, November 27, that an exploring expedition was launched to look for a suitable place to set of a village. But it was now winter, and far colder than winter weather as they knew it in Europe. The land was snow-covered. Bradford wrote, "Some of our people that are dead took the original of their death here" on that [scouting] expedition.

The settlers found stores of corn left by the native Americans, and took some of it, paying them back a few months later.

It was almost impossible to set up a village in this freezing and snow-laden land. So during the first winter, the passengers remained on board the Mayflower. Not surprisingly, an outbreak of a contagious disease spread and killed many. When it was over only half the passengers and crew were left. In the spring, they built huts ashore, and the passengers left the Mayflower on March 21, 1621.

The settlers decided to put their canon onshore to defend their rapidly-built collection of simple huts.

The Mayflower set sail for England on April 5, 1621, her empty hold ballasted with stones from the Plymouth Harbor shore, and arrived at the home port of Rotherhithe in London on May 6, 1621. That was nearly her last voyage. The Mayflower most likely was taken apart by Rotherhithe shipbreaker about 1624.

The main record for the voyage of the Mayflower was made by William Bradford, who later became the governor of the colony.

Meanwhile the Pilgrims were on their own in a land they did not know, and they were running out of food fast.

The 400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing took take place in 2020.