The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 2Ames, Azel
History
The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 2
Ames, Azel
Massachusetts -- History -- New Plymouth, 1620-1691; Mayflower (Ship); Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)
The inference is warranted that the MAY-FLOWER, being three times as
large, would carry a considerably heavier and proportionate armament.
The LADY ARBELLA, Winthrop's ship, a vessel of 350 tons, carried "twenty-
eight pieces of ordnance;" but as "Admiral" of the fleet, at a time when
there was a state of war with others, and much piracy, she would
presumably mount more than a proportionate weight of metal, especially as
she convoyed smaller and lightly armed vessels, and carried much value.
There is no reason to suppose that the MAY-FLOWER, in her excessively
crowded condition, mounted more than eight or ten guns, and these chiefly
of small calibre. Her boats included her "long-boat," with which the
experience of her company in "Cape Cod harbor" have made us familiar, and
perhaps other smaller boats,--besides the Master's "skiff" or "gig," of
whose existence and necessity there are numerous proofs. "Monday the
27," Bradford and Winslow state, "it proved rough weather and cross
winds, so as we were constrained, some in the shallop and others in the
long-boat," etc. Bradford states, in regard to the repeated springings-
a-leak of the SPEEDWELL: "So the Master of the bigger ship, called Master
Jones, being consulted with;" and again, "The Master of the small ship
complained his ship was so leaky . . . so they [Masters Jones and
Reynolds] came to consultation, again," etc. It is evident that Jones
was obliged to visit the SPEEDWELL to inspect her and to consult with the
leaders, who were aboard her. For this purpose, as for others, a smaller
boat than the "long-boat" would often serve, while the number of
passengers and crew aboard would seem to demand still other boats.
Winthrop notices that their Captain (Melborne) frequently "had his skiff
heaved out," in the course of their voyage. The Master's small boat,
called the "skiff" or "gig," was, no doubt, stowed (lashed) in the waist
of the ship, while the "long-boat" was probably lashed on deck forward,
being hoisted out and in, as the practice of those days was, by "whips,"
from the yardarms. It was early the habit to keep certain of the live-
stock, poultry, rabbits, etc., in the unused boats upon deck, and it is
possible that in the crowded state of the MAY-FLOWER this custom was
followed. Bradford remarks that their "goods or common store . . .
were long in unlading [at New Plimoth] for want of boats." It seems
hardly possible that the Admiralty authorities,--though navigation laws
were then few, crude, and poorly enforced,--or that the Adventurers and
Pilgrim chiefs themselves, would permit a ship carrying some 130 souls to
cross the Atlantic in the stormy season, without a reasonable boat
provision. The capacity of the "long-boat" we know to have been about
twenty persons, as nearly that number is shown by Bradford and Winslow
to have gone in her on the early expeditions from the ship, at Cape Cod.
She would therefore accommodate only about one sixth of the ship's
company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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