Evening star., 1933-02-12

all being ready, the Mayfower and the Speed.
well set sail for the New World on August 5.
The Maydower was stanch little square.
rigged vessel, double decked, broad In the.
beams and tub6y, with upper decks rising
rather high at the stern. Bradford adds to nef
description by referring to her "topsaf nai-
hards." Her tonnage Is variously given -
about 60 last" which would be equal to ap-
proximately 40 tons, and she was about nine
score in burden, equal to 18o tons
Christopher Jones, her master, and owner N
part Of the vessel, was good seaman and
knew well how to handle the ship. Fourteen
years before he had made voyage In COM
mand Of the Jason to Bordeaux and later no
was engaged in the Greenland whale hsheries.
He was fearless and knew his boat to be stancn'
and told the Pilgrims he knew the ship to be
firm and strong under water. Besides this ne
was of a kindly disposition and was gooo
shot, and even after their arrival in this coun-
try supplied the sick people with geese whicn
he had killed.
Apparently these good people were not prohi-
bitionists, for it is also related
when the Pilgrims own stock Of beer ran
out. on Christmas day, Of all days, and they
began to drink water aboard the master
caused us to have some beer. And so on board
we had at divers times, now and then. some
beer; but on shore none at all"
THE Speedwell. the vessel which accompanied
the Mayfower from Plymouth, proved un-
fit for such voyage, and after much delay
and several efforts to get her in shape, had TO
be left behind Such of the stores as could be
placed in the larger vessel were transferred TO
her, together with some of the passengers, ana
thus, on September 6, she sailed from Plymouth
with 102 souls, men, women and children
crowded between decks, besides the MASTER
Christopher Jones; the ships surgeon. Giles
Heale; the two pilots and the crew. Though
she was dangerously crowded to an extent thae
almost invited sickness among the passengers,
yet there was but slight illness in the little
more than two months it took to cross the At
lantic from Plymouth to Cape Cod, and, so faS
known, but one member of the crew died on
the voyage and but one of the Pilgrim conn
pany, william Butten, a man-servant, VINO
died almost at the journeys end. son TO
Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins was born
aboard the vessel and he was given the appro-
pirate name of "Oceanus" and so the boat
arrived at its destination with the same NUM-
ber Of passengers with which 1t left England.
The ships company also included five hired
men, one of whom was the celebrated John
Alden, who was taken aboard at Southampton
as cooper and was regarded as "hopefu
young man." After a courtship, so beautifully
set forth in Longfellows poem, THE Courtship
of Miles Standish," he married Priscilla Null
Inns, daughter of William Mullins Of Dorking.
who died on board the Maydower IN the sick
ness of the first Winter, when altogether so Of
the party perished.
Alden was but 81 years of age, being the
youngest of all the Pilgrims, and according to
tradition, the handsomest as well. StandiAn
soldier and fighter. and more or lees
proficient in the art Of warfare, but very st
at making love and proposing marriages.
facing the powder" as we might say todAy.
Apparently John Alden was constituted to tns
reverse, and proved an ardent successful wooe3
history relates.
One of the regulations Of the colony ~
that unmarried persons should live where
authorities directed and they were not pa1s
mitted at all to choose their own place of abode.
On December %, 1920. Alden wa- NJ in the
family Of Miles Standish. Roc -. Ct