Mayflower (vessel)

Mayflower (vessel), vessel in which the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the New World in 1620. As originally conceived, the expedition included another vessel, the Speedwell, but the latter proved unseaworthy. The Mayflower, about 180 gross tons and carrying 102 passengers, finally got under way from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists had been authorized to settle. As a result of stormy weather and navigational errors, the vessel failed to make good its course, and on November 21 the Mayflower rounded the end of Cape Cod and dropped anchor off the site of present-day Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The Mayflower remained anchored for the next few weeks while a party from the ship explored Cape Cod and its environs in search of a satisfactory site for the colony. Peregrine White, the first European child born in New England, was delivered on the Mayflower in the interim. On December 21, an area having been selected, the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower near the head of Cape Cod and founded Plymouth Colony, the first permanent settlement in New England.

The Pilgrims were probably more than 800 km (500 mi) northeast of their intended destination in Virginia. The patent for their settlement in the New World, issued by the London Company, was no longer binding, and some among the passengers desired total independence from their shipmates. To prevent this, 41 of the adult male passengers, including John Alden, William Bradford, William Brewster, John Carver, Miles Standish, and Edward Winslow, gathered in the cabin of the Mayflower and formulated and signed the Mayflower Compact; all adult males were required to sign. This compact consolidated the passengers into a “civil body politic,” which had the power to frame and enact laws appropriate to the general good of the planned settlement. All colonists were bound to obey the ordinances so enacted. This compact established rule of the majority, which remained a primary principle of government in Plymouth Colony until its absorption by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

See also Plymouth Colony.