Friday, November 9

     Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.

      On this day in 1620, the Pilgrims on board the ship Mayflower first caught sight of land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The crew had been over to this area before and knew where they were. The Pilgrims were supposed to be in or near Manhattan which was then part of Virginia Colony where they had a patent from the king to settle.
     Captain Jones headed the ship south, but storms kept blowing the ship back to the Cape. They eventually anchored in present day Provincetown Harbor to decide what to do. It had been a miserable trip up to this point. Most of the passengers had been on the ship since July. They had had to hang around the mouth of the Thames River waiting for another ship carrying English Pilgrims who had been living in Holland.
     The two ships set off for America in early August, but the other ship sprang a leak and both ships returned to England. Some of the leaky ship's passengers joined the group on the Mayflower for a total of 102. The crew numbered 25-30. It was now September, the time of storms in the North Atlantic. Waves washed constantly over the deck, and a main support beam cracked. Fortunately the Pilgrims had brought along a screwjack which the ship's carpenter used to make repairs.
     Tempers were starting to flare once the ship anchored in Provincetown. William Bradford, leader of the Pilgrims, wrote the Mayflower Compact, setting down rules of government. Since supplies were low, they decided to stay where they were through the winter.
     There was little water around Provincetown so they moved across the bay to Plymouth. They remained on the cramped ship through the winter, suffering from scurvy, pneumonia, and TB. Half the Pilgrims and crew died. Finally, on the first day of spring, they moved ashore and built a fort and rough homes. They had several cannons for protection.
    The Mayflower headed back to England in April. The return trip took one month, half the time of the trip over. Captain Jones died the flowing year and the Mayflower herself disappeared from history two years after that.
     This is just my opinion, but had the Pilgrims made it to Manhattan as originally planned, they would not be the big deal today that they now are in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

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