Today in HistoryâAugust 15: The Mayflowerâs First Attempt
On this day in 1620, the Mayflower and the Speedwell set out from Southampton, England, and headed for North America.
âŠthe Speedwell?
It turns out there was a second ship in the pilgrimsâ story.
The Speedwell had sailed first from Holland to England, bringing about 45 passengers and supplies to join the voyage for religious freedom to North America. But it never made the difficult transatlantic crossing to Plymouth Colony (and into our history books).
No blueprints or detailed descriptions of either ship survive, but historians have deduced much about them from tax records and logbooks. The Mayflower was probably a square-rigged merchant ship about 90 feet long, weighing roughly 180 tons. The Speedwell was smaller, also square-rigged, a decommissioned light warship weighing just a third as much. The plan was for the Speedwell to remain in North America and fish for cod to salt and dry and take back to help repay the investors who bankrolled the journey.
But the Speedwell proved unseaworthy, handling neither speedily nor well. The ship sprang so many leaks that it twice had to return to port, once after making it 200 miles out. (The Mayflower accompanied it back each time.) Despite repairs that included caulking with tar and hemp, the ship was deemed unfit for the Atlantic crossing and abandoned. Many of its passengers and much of its remaining supplies crowded aboard the Mayflower instead.
When the Mayflower set out alone a month later, it carried 102 passengers, plus the shipâs crew. Their intended destination was a land grant in Virginia.
The Mayflower was originally a cargo ship that carried wine.
But the delay meant the ship was sailing into less favorable wind and rougher fall seas, and provisions had already begun to dwindle after two false-start crossings.
The actual crossing took more than two months. Food and water nearly ran out, and disease spread through the cramped, dark, wet space. The exhausted passengers landed far north of where theyâd planned, reaching Cape Cod in November. Unable to go any farther, they would settle at Plymouth.
Had the Speedwell held together, the story of European settlement in North America might have looked vastly different. Instead, the ship changed history, simply by falling apart.
- April 5, 1621: Date the Mayflower left North America to return to England
- 1: Box of belongings each family was allotted to bring
- 2: Babies born onboard the Mayflower
- 1914: The Panama Canal opens to ships
- 1947: India achieves independence
- 2013: The discovery of the olinguito, a member of the raccoon family, is announced
