As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
All people will incorrectly tell you this Thanksgiving that the May-Flower was a one word ship the Mayflower which brough the Planters and Adventurers to America.
All will have absolutely have no idea what this ship was or who she was.
The May-Flower was constructed in Yarmouth, England. That is the port she was registered out of, and when she was engaged for the voyage to America, she was spoken out of London by her merchant owner.
No one ever thinks about this ship of history. It is as if she vanished after her epic voyage, but the May-Flower was a work horse of the English merchant fleet. She was named in Higginson's fleet as the famous May-Flower and a decade later, the May-Flower in 1630 AD in the year of our Lord, was in Winthrop's fleet still bringing colonists and supplies to America.
This quote of the ship is of her charter:
"the Good ship MAY-FLOWER of Yarmouth, of 9 score tuns burthen, whereof for the present viage Thomas Joanes is Master, should make the viage as a colonist-transport, from the city of London in His Majesty's Kingdom."
The May-Flower was one of the most favored ships, because she was one of the largest, most heavily armed and better manned. I will repeat that again, that this Pilgrim ship was heavily armed. These people and their investors meant to intend themselves and their property.
The cost per passage, with room and board for a May-Flower voyage per person was 4 pounds 11 shillings.
The May-Flower was built like a duck. That is what ships were to do foremost. They were to keep floating no matter what, as that was more important than speed. She was ship that was meant to take weather, bob in heavy seas like a cork and end up port and not the bottom of the sea.
She was over used horridly in being loaded too heavy. Still the ship leaked, but she kept on top of the waves. She was a work horse of work horses.
There were over a dozen Mayflowers in the British fleet. Some were slave traders, some deployed as war ships impressed into service, but it is almost impossible to locate which was the May-Flower which the Pilgrims sailed to America on board, but it seems certain she was built in the late 1500's as many of these merchant ships were.
It took the May-Flower thirty one days to return to England, after a winter in America. She arrived home on May 6, 1621.
For all the historic fame of this ship, no information exists as to what ever happened to this ship. The best assessment as she never was noted as being lost at sea, which would have ruined investors, made news accounts, and perhaps brought insurance claims, leads to the conclusion that the May-Flower simply wore out, was purchased and handed down to non ocean traders, to cross channel traffic, and finally was so unseaworthy and not worth the investment of refitting her, that she was stripped of her rigging and scrapped unnoticed.
She was a fine ship who changed the world. She was always safe and sound, and like so many whalers as the Catchelot, she bobbed about the ocean keeping cargo and crew safe for years and always showing up in port.
That is the history of the May-Flower, like a comet she appeared in the historical skies, and then simply was gone never to appear again, or a record of the event of her.
The Christians she brought to America would be aghast and are no doubt aghast from God's Heaven over what a sodom America has degenerated to. After their exile, their suffering, their labors and their death, there is nothing but mocking of the Puritans as some oddballs, but in the 1600's America's largest group were Christian zealots who risked all aboard ships like the May-Flower to escape the sodom of Europe.
That is the history of the May-Flower.
agtG
