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Page 30
[2] Probably the Merrimac.
THE FIRST VOYAGE OF THE "MAYFLOWER"
(1620)
BY GOVERNOR WILLIAM BRADFORD[1]
Sept^r: 6. These troubls being blowne over, and now all being compacte
togeather in one shipe, they put to sea againe with a prosperus winde,
which continued diverce days togeather, which was some incouragemente
unto them; yet according to y^e usuall maner many were afflicted with
sea-sicknes....
After they had injoyed faire winds and weather for a season, they were
incountred many times with crosse winds, and mette with many feirce
stormes, with which y^e shipe was shroudly shaken, and her upper works
made very leakie; and one of the maine beames in y^e midd ships was
bowed & craked, which put them in some fear that y^e shipe could not
be able to performe y^e vioage. So some of y^e cheefe of y^e company,
perceiving y^e mariners to feare y^e suffisiencie of y^e shipe, as
appeared by their mutterings, they entred into serious consulltation
with y^e m^r. & other officers of y^e ship, to consider in time of y^e
danger; and rather to returne then to cast them selves into a
desperate & inevitable perill. And truly ther was great distraction &
differance of opinion amongst y^e mariners themselves; faine would
they doe what could be done for their wages sake, (being now halfe the
seas over,) and on y^e other hand they were loath to hazard their
lives too desperatly. But in examening of all opinions, the m^r. &
others affirmed they knew y^e ship to be stronge & firme under water;
and for the buckling of y^e maine beame, ther was a great iron scrue
y^e passengers brought out of Holland, which would raise y^e beame
into his place; y^e which being done, the carpenter & m^r. affirmed
that with a post put under it, set firme in y^e lower deck, &
otherways bounde, he would make it sufficiente.
And as for y^e decks & uper workes they would calke them as well as
they could, and though with y^e workeing of y^e ship they would not
longe keepe stanch, yet ther would otherwise be no great danger, if
they did not overpress her with sails. So they comited them selves to
y^e will of God, & resolved to proseede. In sundrie of these stormes
the winds were so feirce, & y^e seas so high, as they could not beare
a knote of saile, but were forced to hull, for diverce days togither.
And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull, in a mighty storme, a
lustie yonge man (called John Rowland) coming upon some occasion above
y^e grattings, was, with a seele of y^e shipe throwne into [y^e] sea;
but it pleased God y^t he caught hould of y^e tope-saile halliards,
which hunge over board, & rane out at length; y^et he held his hould
(though he was sundrie fadomes under water) till he was hald up by y^e
same rope to y^e brime of y^e water, and then with a boat hooke &
other means got into y^e shipe againe, & his life saved; and though he
was something ill with it, y^et he lived many years after, and became
a profitable member both in church & comone wealthe. In all this siage
ther died but one of y^e passengers, which was William Butten, a
youth, servant to Samuel Fuller, when they drew near y^e coast....
But to omite other things, (that I may be breefe,) after longe beating
at sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod; the which
being made & certainly knowne to be it, they were not a little
joyfull. After some deliberation had amongst them selves & with y^e
m^r. of y^e ship, they tacked aboute and resolved to stande for y^e
southward (y^e wind & weather being faire) to find some place aboute
Hudsons river for their habitation. But after they had sailed y^t
course aboute half y^e day, they fell amongst deangerous shoulds and
roring breakers, and they were so farr intangled ther with as they
conceived them selves in great danger; & y^e wind shrinking upon them
withall, they resolved to bear up againe for the Cape, and thought
them selves hapy to gett out of those dangers before night overtooke
them, as by Gods providence they did. And y^e next day they gott into
y^e Cape-harbor wher they ridd in saftie.[2] A word or too by y^e way
of this cape; it was thus first named by Capten Gosnole & his company,
An^o: 1602, and after by Capten Smith was caled Cape James; but it
retains y^e former name amongst sea-men. Also y^t pointe which first
shewed those dangerous shoulds unto them, they called Point Care, &
Tuckers Terrour; but y^t French & Dutch to this day call it Malabarr,
by reason of those perilous shoulds, and y^e losses they have suffered
their.
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