Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America
Pioneers make a daring voyage in search of a new life in Massachusetts
At the beginning of September 1620, the Puritan community later known as the Pilgrim Fathers were becoming increasingly impatient.
More than a dozen years earlier, their separatist congregation had moved from eastern England to the Dutch city of Leiden. But partly because they struggled with the language, and also because they were worried that their children were becoming Dutch, they had decided on a radical new venture: to build a new world on the shores of North America.
By August 1620 the Pilgrims were ready to leave, and they had leased two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. But then – disaster struck. When they set sail on the fifth of the month, the Speedwell began to leak, forcing them to turn back to Plymouth. Here some of the passengers lost enthusiasm, but eventually the organisers managed to cram more than 100 settlers onto the Mayflower. Now they waited for the wind.
On 16 September the Pilgrims “put to sea again with a prosperous wind, which continued diverse days together”, as recalled the future governor of the new colony, William Bradford. Alas, many of them were afflicted by sea-sickness, and they also had to put up with abuse from one of the sailors, clearly not a fan, who told them that “he hoped to help to cast half of them over board before they came to their journey’s end”. Fortunately, added Bradford, “it pleased God… to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner”.
And at last on 9 November the Pilgrims sighted land: the New World of their dreams.