The History of the Mayflower
In August 1609, Andrew Pawling hired the Mayflower to carry a cargo of hats, salt, wine, hemp, and vinegar to Trodheim, Norway; and to bring home a cargo of Norway pine planks, called "deals", along with barrels of tar and herrings. Pawlings was counting on his profit from this voyage to pay back several outstanding debts he had coming due in a couple of months. But the Mayflower's voyage took far longer than expected, due to the fact that Pawling's servant had spent a month more than planned to load the ship in Norway; and also due to the fact the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm on the trip home that tossed it at sea for several weeks. The storm was so severe, in fact, that Master Christopher Jones, the ship's captain, had some of the cargo, and some of the ship's provisions, thrown overboard to lighten the load and save everyone's lives. Way off schedule, the ship arrived to find Pawling in jail for defaulting on his debts. Pawling sold of the Mayflower's goods to pay off some of his outstanding debts, but shafted one especially persistent debtor who then took the matter to the High Court of Admiralty (and, as a result, recorded all these events into the historical record.)
The 1609 adventures of the Mayflower are, in fact, the earliest conclusive records relating to the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America. One deposition in the case stated that Jones had been master of the ship for a couple years prior to the 1609 sailing, so he apparently came into possession of the ship around 1607; he was a quarter-owner of the ship, the other owners at the time being John Moore, Robert Childe, and Thomas Short. Whether the ship was new at that time, or whether it had been previously owned, cannot be satisfactorily answered with the available records. A very reasonable hypothesis with some supporting evidence was published in 1922, and suggests the Mayflower had been previously owned by Robert Burton of Leigh, and that he traded his ship Mayflower for Christopher Jones' ship Josian. It has been speculated that prior to that, the ship may have been owned by the Vassall family, but this is far too speculative. The ship name Mayflower was fairly common, so it is not possible to jump to any conclusions without serious research.
From 1609 through 1620, the Mayflower was used almost exclusively as a cargo ship carrying English goods (primarily cloth, fox and rabbit furs, and iron and pewter goods) to France and Spain, almost always returning home fully laden with French wines, and occasionally some vinegar and salt. Its primary ports of call were Bordeaux and La Rochelle, France, though she made trips to Charente, France, and Malaga, Spain, as well. In 1613 and 1614, the Mayflower and Christopher Jones changed the usual wine trading routine temporarily, and made two voyages to Hamburg, Germany, bringing home cargos of various fabrics and cloth.
In May 1620, the Mayflower returned from one of its usual voyages to La Rochelle, France, fully loaded with French wines. The ship was hired in London and sailed down to Southampton in July. Along with the ship Speedwell the two embarked on their first voyage attempt on August 5. The Speedwell was leaking too much, so the two ships put in to Dartmouth for repairs. The second voyage attempt was made August 22. The two ships made it 300 miles out into the Atlantic before the master of the Speedwell, William Reynolds, decided the ship was too leaky to continue. Both ships turned back, and put in to Plymouth, England. There, the decision was made to just forget the Speedwell. About 20 people, including the Blossom, Ring and Cushman families, decided to quit from the voyage and go home. The remaining 102 passengers and goods were packed onto the Mayflower, and embarked from Plymouth, England to America on September 6: this time for good.
The Mayflower's crew sighted Cape Cod on November 9; they attempted to sail south to an area around the mouth of the Hudson's River, near modern-day Long Island, New York. They nearly shipwrecked at some shoals to the south of the Cape nicknamed Tucker's Terror; narrowly escaping, the decision was made not to try that again--they would go back and explore Cape Cod. They anchored off Provincetown Harbor on November 11, and over the next month they put out several expeditions to survey Cape Cod and the vicinity. By mid-December, running out of both patience and provisions (including beer, the primary beverage since water was usually contaminated with parasites), the Pilgrims decided upon the area we now know as Plymouth Colony. They continued to live out of the Mayflower for several more months, making trips to land to build storehouses and houses. Constructing homes and storehouses proved to be very slow going: many were sick and could not labor hard; bad weather frequently prevented much work from being done; and the few structures they did build occasionally succumbed to fire.
By April, the weather started turning for the better, the people's healths began to recover, so on April 5, 1621, the Mayflower set sail home for England, arriving back on May 6, bringing letters and news of the successful establishment of Plymouth: but with a devastating 50% loss of lives, and with no profit (lumber, furs, fish) sent home as cargo.
After returning home, the Mayflower was again employed in a trip to France, bringing home to London a cargo of salt. Shortly thereafter, her master and quarter-owner, Christopher Jones, fell sick. He would die in March 1623. By 1624, the Mayflower, which apparently had not been used since October 1621, was sitting in ruins in the river Thames. She was appraised for a pathetically low £128, including the suit of worn sails and an old pitch pot and kettle. Undoubtedly the ship was sold off as scrap lumber.
In 1920, J. Rendal Harris claimed to have discovered the Mayflower as a barn in Jordans, England. Despite the total lack of evidence and no supporting documentation, this theory has been accepted by the mass media, and has found itself in "National Geographic," and as a question on Jeopardy. Nonetheless it is almost certainly not the Mayflower.
www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/MayflowerShip.php
