'It was four hundred years ago today that the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth,

with 102 passengers on board who hoped to begin a new life in America, alongside 30 crew members. The passengers were a mix of Separatist Puritans, seeking the opportunity to live in religious freedom away from the Church of England, and a group of less religious Colonists who were hoping to make their lives and their fortunes in New England. The Separatists called themselves the Saints and the Colonists the Strangers.

This was their third attempt at the journey. Twice before they had been forced to turn back when the Speedwell – a ship bought by the Separatists that was to sail alongside the Colonists’ ship, the Mayflower – began leaking. They were forced to abandon the Speedwell, with 28 passengers moving to the Mayflower and the rest being forced to give up their journey.
The Mayflower eventually set out alone, but the delay meant that they sailed across the Atlantic during the stormy season in a voyage that took sixty-six days. The bad weather caused a terrible crossing – many of the passengers were violently seasick, most could barely stand upright for much of the voyage and one was even washed overboard.

Finally they sighted land – Cape Cod – and despite their attempts to sail on southwards to their intended settlement near the mouth of the Hudson River, the rough weather drove them back. The Mayflower was forced to drop anchor at present-day Provincetown Harbour, considerably further north than their original destination.

As they were no longer settling in the agreed upon territory, divisions began to occur between the groups, with the Colonists saying they “would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them.” To keep order, the Mayflower Compact was drawn up, setting out the rules and regulations everyone was expected to live by, and signed by 41 male passengers of the Mayflower when they were in the waters at Cape Cod. This was the first document to establish self-governance in the New World, an idea that would become central to the founding of the United States.'

(Poster based in Ireland. https://www.facebook.com/PhilippaGregoryOfficial/ )