Part 19 (2/2)

Transferring cargo from SPEEDWELL.

FRIDAY, Sept. 1/Sept. 11 At anchor in Plymouth roadstead.

Transferring pa.s.sengers and freight to and from consort. Master Cushman and family, Master Blossom and son, William Ring, and others with children, going back to London in SPEEDWELL. All Of SPEEDWELL'S pa.s.sengers who are to make the voyage now aboard. New ”governour” of s.h.i.+p and a.s.sistants chosen. Master Carver ”governour.”

[We have seen that Christopher Martin was made ”governour” of the pa.s.sengers on the MAY-FLOWER for the voyage, and Cushman ”a.s.sistant.” It is evident from Cushman's oft-quoted letter (see ante) that Martin became obnoxious, before the s.h.i.+p reached Dartmouth, to both pa.s.sengers and crew. It is also evident that when the emigrants were all gathered in the MAY-FLOWER there was a new choice of officers (though no record is found of it), as Cushman vacated his place and went back to London, and we find that, as noted before, on November 11 the colonists ”confirmed” John Carver as their ”governour,” showing that he had been such hitherto.

Doubtless Martin was deposed at Southampton (perhaps put into Cushman's vacant place, and Carver made ”governour” in his stead.)]

SAt.u.r.dAY, Sept. 2/Sept. 12 At anchor, Plymouth roadstead. Some of princ.i.p.al pa.s.sengers entertained ash.o.r.e by friends of their faith. SPEEDWELL sailed for London. Quarters a.s.signed, etc.

SUNDAY, Sept. 3/Sept. 13 At anchor in Plymouth roadstead.

MONDAY, Sept. 4/Sept. 14 At anchor in Plymouth roadstead. Some Of company ash.o.r.e.

TUESDAY, Sept. 5/Sept. 15 At anchor in Plymouth roadstead. Ready for sea.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 6/Sept. 16 Weighed anchor. Wind E.N.E., a fine gale.

Laid course W.S.W. for northern coasts of Virginia.

THURSDAY, Sept. 7/Sept. 17 Comes in with wind E.N.E. Light gale continues. Made all sail on s.h.i.+p.

FRIDAY, Sept. 8/Sept. 18 Comes in with wind E.N.E. Gale continues.

All sails full.

SAt.u.r.dAY, Sept. 9/Sept. 19 Comes in with wind E.N E. Gale holds.

s.h.i.+p well off the land.

SUNDAY, Sept. 10/Sept. 20 Comes in with wind E.N.E. Gale holds.

Distance lost, when s.h.i.+p bore up for Plymouth, more than regained.

MONDAY, Sept. 11/Sept. 21 Same; and so without material change, the daily record of wind, weather, and the s.h.i.+p's general course--the repet.i.tion of which would be both useless and wearisome --continued through the month and until the vessel was near half the seas over. Fine warm weather and the ”harvest-moon.” The usual equinoctial weather deferred.

SAt.u.r.dAY, Sept. 23/Oct. 3 One of the seamen, some time sick with a grievous disease, died in a desperate manner.

The first death and burial at sea of the voyage.

[We can readily imagine this first burial at sea on the MAY FLOWER, and its impressiveness. Doubtless the good Elder ”committed the body to the deep” with fitting ceremonial, for though the young man was of the crew, and not of the Pilgrim company, his reverence for death and the last rites of Christian burial would as surely impel him to offer such services, as the rough, buccaneering Master (Jones would surely be glad to evade them).

Dr. Griffis (The Pilgrims in their Three Homes, p. 176) says ”The Puritans [does this mean Pilgrims ?] cared next to nothing about ceremonies over a corpse, whether at wave or grave.” This will hardly bear examination, though Bradford's phraseology in this case would seem to support it, as he speaks of the body as ”thrown overboard;” yet it is not to be supposed that it was treated quite so indecorously as the words would imply. It was but a few years after, certainly, that we find both Pilgrim and Puritan making much ceremony at burials. We find considerable ceremony at Carver's burial only a few months later. Choate, in his masterly oration at New York, December 22, 1863, pictures Brewster's service at the open grave of one of the Pilgrims in March, 1621.]

A sharp change. Equinoctial weather, followed by stormy westerly gales; encountered cross winds and continued fierce storms. s.h.i.+p shrewdly shaken and her upper works made very leaky. One of the main beams in the mids.h.i.+ps was bowed and cracked. Some fear that the s.h.i.+p could not be able to perform the voyage. The chief of the company perceiving the mariners to fear the sufficiency of the s.h.i.+p (as appeared by their mutterings) they entered into serious consultation with the Master and other officers of the s.h.i.+p, to consider, in time, of the danger, and rather to return than to cast themselves into a desperate and inevitable peril.

There was great distraction and difference of opinion amongst the mariners themselves.

Fain would they do what would be done for their wages' sake, being now near half the seas over; on the other hand, they were loath to hazard their lives too desperately. In examining of all opinions, the Master and others affirmed they knew the s.h.i.+p to be strong and firm under water, and for the buckling bending or bowing of the main beam, there was a great iron scrue the pa.s.sengers brought out of Holland which would raise the beam into its place. The which being done, the carpenter and Master affirmed that a post put under it, set firm in the lower deck, and otherwise bound, would make it sufficient. As for the decks and upper works, they would caulk them as well as they could; and though with the working of the s.h.i.+p they would not long keep staunch, yet there would otherwise be no great danger if they did not overpress her with sails. So they resolved to proceed.

In sundry of these stormes, the winds were so fierce and the seas so high, as the s.h.i.+p could not bear a knot of sail, but was forced to hull drift under bare poles for divers days together. A succession of strong westerly gales. In one of the heaviest storms, while lying at hull, [hove to D.W.] a l.u.s.ty young man, one of the pa.s.sengers, John Howland by name, coming upon some occasion above the gratings latticed covers to the hatches, was with the seel [roll] of the s.h.i.+p thrown into the sea, but caught hold of the topsail halliards, which hung overboard and ran out at length; yet he held his hold, though he was sundry fathoms under water, till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boathook and other means got into the s.h.i.+p again and his life saved. He was something ill with it.

The equinoctial disturbances over and the strong October gales, the milder, warmer weather of late October followed.

<script>