Mayflower - Passengers

Passengers

For more details on the passenger list, see List of passengers on the Mayflower.

Some families traveled together and others left family members behind. Two of the passengers were pregnant women: Susanna White, and Mary Allerton. Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth en route; her baby was appropriately named Oceanus. A second baby was born during the winter of 1620-1621, when the company wintered aboard ship in Provincetown Harbor. One child died during the voyage, and there was one stillbirth during the construction of the colony. Many of the passengers were Pilgrims fleeing persistent religious persecution, but some were hired hands, servants, or farmers recruited by London merchants, all originally destined for Virginia.

Four of this latter group of passengers were small children given into the care of Mayflower pilgrims. The Virginia Company began the transportation of children in 1618. Until relatively recently, the children were thought to be orphans, foundlings or involuntary child labor. At that time, children were routinely rounded up from the streets of London or taken from poor families receiving church relief to be used as laborers in the colonies. Any legal objections to the involuntary transportation of the children were over-ridden by the Privy Council. In 1959 it was conclusively shown that the four More children were sent to America because they were deemed illegitimate, and a source of later historical controversy in England. Three of the four children died in the first winter in the New World, but the survivor, Richard More, lived to be approximately 81, dying in Salem, probably in 1695 or 1696.

The passengers mostly slept and lived in the low-ceilinged great cabins. These cabins were thin-walled and extremely cramped. The cabin area was 25 feet by 15 at its largest, and on the main deck, which was 75 by 20 at the most. Below decks, any person over five feet tall would be unable to stand up straight. The maximum possible space for each person would have been slightly less than the size of a standard single bed. The Mayflower passengers were the earliest permanent European settlers in New England. During their time, they were referred to as the "First Comers". They lived in the perilous times of what was called "The Ancient Beginnings" of the New World adventure.

Passengers would pass the time by reading by candlelight or playing cards and games like Nine Men’s Morris. Meals on board were cooked by the firebox, which was an iron tray with sand in it on which a fire was built. This was risky because it was kept in the waist of the ship. Passengers made their own meals from rations that were issued daily and food was cooked for a group at a time. Upon arrival late in the year, the harsh climate and scarcity of fresh food caused many more deaths. Due to the delay in departure, provisions were short. Living in these extremely close and crowded quarters, several passengers experienced scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of the essential nutrient vitamin C (ascorbic acid). There was no way to store fruits or vegetables without their becoming rotten, so many passengers did not receive enough nutrients in their diets. Passengers with scurvy experienced symptoms such as rotten teeth, which would fall out; bleeding gums, and stinking breath. Passengers consumed large amounts of alcohol, specifically beer. Beer was thought to be safer than water because the Pilgrims were accustomed to unsafe drinking water. Beer was thought to be part of a healthy, well-balanced diet. William Mullins took 126 pairs of shoes and 13 pairs of boots. These clothes included: oiled leather and canvas suits, stuff gowns and leather and stuff breeches, shirts, jerkins, doublets, neckcloths, hats and caps, hose, stockings, belts, piece goods, and haberdasherie.

No cattle or beasts of draft or burden were brought on the journey, but there were pigs, goats, and poultry. Some passengers brought family pets such as cats and birds. Peter Browne took his large bitch mastiff and John Goodman brought along his spaniel.

The seamen on the Mayflower had four devices to help them during their journey. They charted their course with a compass. They measured their speed with the log and line system. This system consisted of a board attached to a line, which was tossed over the stern. The line was marked with a knot at regular intervals related to the length of a nautical mile. Time was measured with hour glasses; for example, "when the hour glass had emptied at the top vessel, a sailor would strike a bell, and another sailor would count how many knots of line had run out". The speed of the ship in nautical miles per hour (still called "knots") would then be known.

The Pilgrim ship Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States.

The main record for the voyage of the Mayflower and the disposition of the Plymouth Colony comes from the letters and journal of William Bradford, who was a guiding force and later the governor of the colony.