The History of the Mayflower
The Mayflower is one of the most famous ships in both British and American history. This is the ship that carried the first pilgrims from Southampton to Massachusetts when they left to set up a colony in America in 1620.
Prior to this the Mayflower as used as a cargo ship in Europe before being hired along with another ship (The Speedwell) to make the trip with the pilgrims. The ships initial sailing did not begin well - the Speedwell developed a serious leak so the two ships put in at Dartmouth to make repairs. Although the second sailing got a little further the Speedwell was still not voyage worthy and both ships returned to Plymouth.
At this stage the Mayflower was chosen as the sole ship to make the voyage to America - a difficult voyage beset by disease that was to take 66 days. It is thought that half of the original pilgrims died on route. The next few weeks saw the remaining pilgrims struggle to find a suitable place to settle - they finally chose what came to be known as the Plymouth Colony.
The Mayflower continued to play a major part in the pilgrims lives for the next few months as they used the ship as their home base during the time it took them to build houses and buildings to store their goods. Many of the pilgrims were still ill from the voyage, the weather was not good and fire destroyed much of the work they did over the winter months.
By April 1621, however, conditions had improved and the Mayflower sailed back to England. Eventually the Mayflower was left unused and fell into such a state of disrepair that it is believed that it was ultimately sold for lumber. Claims made by J Rendal Harris in the 1920s that he had found the wood of the Mayflower in the structure of a barn are probably unfounded.