The Mayflower and Her Log Part 5

Lying at anchor, Dartmouth harbor.

Monday, Aug. 14/24.

Moving cargo and overhauling and retr.i.m.m.i.n.g ship.

Tuesday, Aug. 15/25.

Lying at Dartmouth. At on ship.

Wednesday, Aug. 16/26.

Ditto. Found a plank feet long loose and admitting water freely, as at a mole hole.

Seams opened some.

Thursday, Aug. 17/27.

Lying at Dartmouth. Some dissension among chief of pa.s.sengers. Ship's "Governor"

unsatisfactory.

Friday, Aug. 18/28.

Lying at Dartmouth. Still at work on ship.

Sat.u.r.day, Aug. 19/29.

Still lying at Dartmouth.

Sunday, Aug. 20/30.

Lying at Dartmouth.

Monday, Aug. 21/31 Still at Dartmouth. Overhauling completed.

Cargo relaced. Making ready to go to sea.

Tuesday, Aug. 22/Sept. 1.

Still at Dartmouth. Lying at anchor ready for sea.

Wednesday, Aug. 23/Sept. 2.

Weighed anchor,' as did also MAY-FLOWER, and set sail. Laid general course W.S.W.

Wind fair

Thursday, Aug. 24/Sept.3.

Fair wind, but ship leaking.

Friday, Aug. 25/Sept. 4.

Wind fair. Ship leaking dangerously.

MAY-FLOWER in company.

Sat.u.r.day, Aug. 26/Sept. 5.

About 100 leagues [300 miles] from Land's End. Ship leaking badly. Hove to.

Signalled MAY-FLOWER, in company.

Consultation between masters, carpenters, and princ.i.p.al pa.s.sengers. Decided to put back into Plymouth and determine whether pinnace is seaworthy. Put about and laid course for Plymouth.

Sunday, Aug. 27/Sept. 6.

Wind on starboard quarter. Made Plymouth harbor and came to anchor. MAY-FLOWER in company.

Monday, Aug. 28/Sept. 7.

At anchor in Plymouth harbor. Conference of chief of Colonists and officers of MAY-FLOWER and SPEEDWELL. No special leak could be found, but it was judged to be the general weakness of the ship, and that she would not prove sufficient for the voyage.

It was resolved to dismiss her the SPEEDWELL, and part of the company, and proceed with the other ship.

Tuesday, Aug. 29/Sept. 8 Lying at Plymouth. Transferring cargo.

Wednesday, Aug. 30/Sept. 9 Lying at Plymouth. Transferring cargo.

Sat.u.r.day, Sept. 2/12 Ditto. Rea.s.signment of pa.s.sengers. Master Cushman and family, Master Blossom and son, Wm. Ring and others to return in pinnace to London.

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

Monday, Sept. 4/14 Weighed anchor and took departure for London, leaving MAY-FLOWER at anchor in roadstead.

Sat.u.r.day, Sept. 9/19 Off Gravesend. Came to anchor in Thames.

THE END OF THE VOYAGE AND OF THE LOG OF THE MAY-FLOWER'S CONSORT

From Bradford we learn that the SPEEDWELL was sold at London, and was "refitted", her old trip being restored, and that she afterwards made for her new owners many and very prosperous voyages.

CHAPTER III

THE MAY-FLOWER'S CHARTER AND THE ADVENTURERS

The ship MAY-FLOWER was evidently chartered about the middle of June, 1620 at London, by Masters Thomas West Robert Cushman acting together in behalf of the Merchant Adventurers (chiefly of London) and the English congregation of "Separatists" (the "Pilgrims"), at Leyden in Holland who, with certain of England a.s.sociated, proposed to colony in America.

Professor Arber, when he says, in speaking of Cushman and Weston, "the hiring of the MAY-FLOWER, when they did do it, was their act alone, and the Leyden church nothing to do with it," seems to forget that Cushman and his a.s.sociate Carver had no other function or authority in their conjunction with Weston and Martin, except to represent the Leyden congregation. Furthermore, it was the avowed wish of Robinson (see his letter dated June 14, 1620, to John Carver), that Weston "may [should]

presently succeed in hiring" [a ship], which was equivalent to hoping that Carver and Cushman--Weston's a.s.sociates representing Leyden--would aid in so doing. Moreover, Bradford expressly states that: "Articles of Agreement, drawn by themselves were, by their [the Leyden congregation's]

said messenger [Carver] sent into England, who together with Robert Cushman were to receive moneys and make provisions, both for shipping, and other things for the voyage."

Up to Sat.u.r.day, June 10, nothing had been effected in the way of providing shipping for the migrating planters though the undertaking had been four months afoot--beyond the purchase and refitting, in Holland, by the Leyden people themselves, of a pinnace of sixty tons (the SPEEDWELL) intended as consort to a larger ship--and the hiring of a "pilott" to refit her, as we have seen.

The Leyden leaders had apparently favored purchasing also the larger vessel still needed for the voyage, hoping, perhaps, to interest therein at least one of their friends, Master Edward Pickering, a merchant of Holland, himself one of the Adventurers, while Master Weston had, as appears, inclined to hire. From this disagreement and other causes, perhaps certain sinister reasons, Weston had become disaffected, the enterprise drooped, the outlook was dubious, and several formerly interested drew back, until shipping should be provided and the good faith of the enterprise be thus a.s.sured.

It transpires from Robinson's letter dated June 14., before quoted (in which he says: "For shipping, Master Weston, it should seem is set upon hiring"), that Robinson's own idea was to purchase, and he seems to have dominated the rest. There is perhaps a hint of his reason for this in the following clause of the same letter, where he writes: "I do not think Master Pickering [the friend previously named] will ingage, except in the course of buying ['ships?'--Arber interpolates] as in former letters specified." If he had not then "ingaged" (as Robinson intimates), as an Adventurer, he surely did later, contrary to the pastor's prediction, and the above may have been a bit of special pleading. Robinson naturally wished to keep their, affairs, so far as possible, in known and supposedly friendly hands, and had possibly some a.s.surances that, as a merchant, Pickering would be willing to invest in a ship for which he could get a good charter for an American voyage. He proved rather an unstable friend.

Robinson is emphatic, in the letter cited, as to the imperative necessity that shipping should be immediately provided if the enterprise was to be held together and the funds subscribed were to be secured. He evidently considered this the only guaranty of good faith and of an honest intention to immediately transport the colony over sea, that would be accepted. After saying, as already noted, that those behind-hand with their payments refuse to pay in "till they see shipping provided or a course taken for it," he adds, referring to Master Weston: "That he should not have had either shipping ready before this time, or at least certain [i.e. definite] means and course, and the same known to us, for it; or have taken other order otherwise; cannot in [according to] my conscience be excused."

Bradford also states that one Master Thomas Weston a merchant of London, came to Leyden about the same time [apparently while negotiations for emigration under their auspices were pending with the Dutch, in February or March, 1620], who was "well acquainted with some of them and a furtherer of them in their former proceedings.... and persuaded them....

not to meddle with the Dutch," etc. This Robinson confirms in his letter to Carver before referred to, saying: "You know right well we depend on Master Weston alone,.... and when we had in hand another course with the Dutchman, broke it off at his motion."

On the morning of the 10th of June, 1620, Robert Cushman, one of the Leyden agents at London, after writing to his a.s.sociate, Master John Carver, then at Southampton; and to the Leyden leaders--in reply to certain censorious letters received by him from both these sources --although disheartened by the difficulties and prospects before him, sought Master Weston, and by an urgent appeal so effectively wrought upon him, that, two hours later, coming to Cushman, he promised "he would not yet give it [the undertaking] up." Cushman's patience and endurance were evidently nearly "at the breaking point," for he says in his letter of Sunday, June 11, when success had begun to crown his last grand effort: "And, indeed, the many discouragements I find here [in London] together with the demurs and retirings there [at Leyden] had made me to say, 'I would give up my accounts to John Carver and at his coming from Southampton acquaint him fully with all courses [proceedings] and so leave it quite, with only the poor clothes on my back: But gathering up myself by further consideration, I resolved yet to make one trial more,"

etc. It was this "one trial more" which meant so much to the Pilgrims; to the cause of Religion; to America; and to Humanity. It will rank with the last heroic and successful efforts of Robert the Bruce and others, which have become historic. The effect of Cushman's appeal upon Weston cannot be doubted. It not only apparently influenced him at the time, but, after reflection and the lapse of hours, it brought him to his a.s.sociate to promise further loyalty, and, what was much better, to act.