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The Mayflower

The Mayflower

      The Mayflower was the ship that transported English and Dutch Separatists and other adventurers referred to by the Separatists as "the Strangers" to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.

The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6/16, 1620, with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members aboard the small 100-foot ship. During the first month of the voyage, the seas were not severe, but by the second month the ship was being hit by strong North Atlantic winter gales, causing the ship to be badly shaken, with water leaking from structural damage. There were two deaths, but this was just a precursor of what happened after their arrival in Cape Cod, when almost half the company would die in the first winter.

On November 9/19, 1620, they sighted land, which was Cape Cod. After several days of trying to sail south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day.

The Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States.

The main record for the voyage of the Mayflower and the disposition of the Plymouth Colony comes from the letters and journal of William Bradford, who was a guiding force and later the governor of the colony.

The Mayflower Compact
Jean Leon Gerome Ferris - 	The Mayflower Compact, 1620, Courtesy of the Library of Congress, and Wikimedia Commons.

      The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the Separatists, also known as the "Saints", fleeing religious persecution from James VI and I. They traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620 along with adventurers, tradesmen, and servants, most of whom were referred to as "Strangers".

The Mayflower Compact was signed, aboard ship, on November 11, 1620 (OS), by 41 of the ship's 101 passengers, while the Mayflower was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor, within the hook at the northern tip of Cape Cod.

The Mayflower Compact Courtesy of Pinterest @ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/476818679272024703/