Thanksgiving
Is A Special Time
Real abundance is found when we join hands with those we love.
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving
Day.
The Mayflower
The
Mayflower was fast, seaworthy ship and was about twenty
years old. She had been in the wine trade in France and
could carry one hundred & eighty tons. No one is sure
exactly what the ship looked like. The ship was about
ninety feet long and about twenty-five feet wide. The
middle part of the main deck was open to the weather.
Below this was the gun deck and below that was the hold.
There were high structures at the bow and stern of the
ship. The one at the bow was the forecastle, where the
crew slept and the cook had a brick wood-burning stove.
The structure at the aft, the stern castle, had two
short decks, one below the other. In one of these was
the master's stateroom and the "great cabin," where the
officers ate. In both there were also bunks for the more
important passengers. Since this was the driest part of
the ship, the flour and sea biscuits were stored here.
On the deck below was the steerage. Steering wheels and
gear had not yet been invented. Instead, the ship was
steered by a whipstaff, a beam attached to the tiller
that ran through a sternpost down to the rudder. Some of
the passengers slept in the shallop, an open boat that
was stowed on the gun deck. Most of the passengers
probably spread blankets on the planking that formed the
floors of the decks.
Beside food, clothing and some pieces of furniture, the
Pilgrims took along a supply of seeds, garden tools,
saws, axes, hammers, gunpowder, and firearms. They also
brought barrels of bright cloth, beads, knives and small
mirrors to trade with the Indians.
It was gale season when they set sail. For days at a
time they had to lower the sails and drift through
gigantic seas. Seams in the deck opened, letting icy
water down on the frightened passengers, many were sick.
At the height of one gale a main beam in the middle of
the ship had buckled and cracked. Several officers
wanted to turn back, but the beam was repaired, and the
ship's master Christopher Jones, said the ship was
strong and tight.
Christopher Jones was an expert mariner and had
commanded the Mayflower for twelve years. Beside the
officers there were about twenty or more seamen. They
cursed the Pilgrims and made fun of their constant
praying. The pilgrims saw the hardships aboard ship as
God's way of testing their faith and courage.
After more than two months at sea, land was finally
sighted. They were at Cape Cod, just north of the Hudson
River. Heading south they ran into shoals and breakers.
They took shelter at Provincetown Harbor where the
Pilgrim leaders drew up the Mayflower Compact.
There were too many Indians around Cape Cod and not
enough fresh water. They decided to go to Thievish
Harbor but could not find it, so they landed at a place
they called Plymouth. The Pilgrims sheltered in the ship
for the winter. In January & February of that first
winter, sometimes two or three people died in a single
day. Many died of scurvy, a sickness caused by the lack
of fruit and vegetables. Some would have died from
pneumonia and typhus. The sick were lodged in the
storehouse and the Mayflower became a hospital ship. The
ship left in April for the return trip to England.
The Pilgrims were on their own, three thousand miles
from home. In the spring the fragrant pink arbutus
bloomed, which they called the mayflower. The large
stream that flowed into Plymouth they named Jones River
after the ship's master.
