The Mayflower II

Jill's Journal: After the Mayflower sailed back to England in 1621 (after sheltering the Pilgrims during that first brutal winter) and her captain died in 1624, she disappeared from historical records. No one knows what happened to her. But in 1957, she was replicated, right down to the solid oak timbers and tarred hemp rigging. Her replica, the Mayflower II, is currently anchored in Plymouth not far from the Rock.

The original Mayflower was built in the late 1500s and was a merchant ship, never meant to be a passenger ship. A tour of the replica confirms it. It is hard to fathom how 102 passengers survived in the severely cramped quarters.

The Mayflower’s voyage was beset by horrible weather and one storm after another plagued her journey across the North Atlantic. The 30-person crew kept to the upper deck and the 102 Pilgrims lived entirely on the lower deck in the dark, damp cold. The hull of the ship is 90 feet long and 25 feet wide, which is anything but spacious when you're talking about that many people. Plus part of that passenger space in the lower deck was taken up by the hold and a large winch.

The living/eating/sleeping quarters of the 102 Pilgrims (not counting the three babies born during their long months on the ship) were so cramped that it’s hard to imagine how they didn’t go mad. Three or more people slept on wooden “beds” no bigger than a modern loveseat. Every inch of floor space had a body. The seas were so rough the Pilgrims didn’t dare go on the deck. They lived like sardines for 7 1/2 months – this includes their two false starts leaving England, 66 days of crossing the Atlantic, and the winter months spent on the ship as they were without shelter in Massachusetts until spring. Anyone housing animals today the way these Pilgrims lived in search of a better life would be jailed for inhumanity.

It’s no wonder only 53 of the original 102 Pilgrims were still alive when they finally left the Mayflower permanently in late March of 1621. Seeing the Mayflower II gives one such a respect for the nearly insurmountable feat of the Pilgrims. They risked their lives and those of their children to forge religious freedom in a wild land. Us modern-day folks have no concept of the hardships people endured to simply live in freedom. That thought alone is downright humbling.