Forming the "Pilgrim Company," in which they all took shares, a vessel named the _Speedwell_ was purchased at Delft-Haven in Holland, and another named the _Mayflower_ in London. The two parties joined at Southampton. After leaving the shores of England the _Speedwell_ was found to be unseaworthy, and the two vessels, therefore, returned to England, when it was determined that the _Mayflower_ should proceed alone. There not being sufficient accommodation on the one ship for the combined expeditions, a number were left behind. The _Mayflower_, a vessel of only 180 tons, sailed from Plymouth with about 100 of the "Pilgrims" crowded on board. On reaching the shores of America in November, 1620, after a voyage of two months and five days, they found that they were far to the north of the Virginia Colony to which they had been commissioned. Tired of the sea, but being hopeful that they would receive, as they subsequently did, a grant of land from the Plymouth Company, and being without a charter for the territory on which they were about to land, it became necessary to make a new agreement between themselves for the government of their colony. A "_compact_" was accordingly drawn up on board the _Mayflower_ "off Cap-Codd," and signed by all the heads of families. In this document they described themselves as " ... the loyall subjects of our dread Soveraigne Lord King James by the grace of God of Gt. Britaine, France and Ireland, King-defender of ye faith, &c., having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of ye Christian faith and honour of our King & Countrie a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia," and the date of the year is given as "the eighteenth of 'Our Soveraigne Lord King James.'"[82] [82] Macdonald: "Charters Illustrative of American History, 1606-1775." As the _Mayflower_ was an English ship she would carry the St. George cross flag on the foremast, and as they declared themselves to be loyal subjects of King James it is most probable that the "additional" Union Jack of James I. was also displayed at the main. Such was the beginning of the migration of the Puritans from England, which, following this first colony, continued during the remainder of the century. That the Pilgrims carried the English Jack is plainly shown by the controversies which arose from time to time in this "New England" district upon the subject of the use of the cross of St. George, not for want of any loyalty to it, but from their strict religious views. John Endicott, and the Puritans who subsequently settled at Salem, objected to the cross in the flag as being an "_idolatrous emblem_," and, in 1634, "_defaced the ensign by taking out one part of the red cross_."[83] [83] _Winthrop's Journal_, November 5, 1634, Vol. I., p. 175.