This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
THE MAY-FLOWER AND HER LOG
July 15, 1620—May 6, 1621
Chiefly from Original Sources
By AZEL AMES, M.D.
Member of Pilgrim Society, etc.
BOOK 5.
CHAPTER VII
QUARTERS, COOKING, PROVISIONS
Probably no more vexatious problem presented itself for the time being tothe "governors" of the two vessels and their "assistants," upon theirselection, than the assignment of quarters to the passengers allotted totheir respective ships. That these allotments were in a large measuredetermined by the requirements of the women and children may beconsidered certain. The difficulties attendant on due recognition ofsocial and official station (far more imperative in that day than this)were in no small degree lessened by the voluntary assignment ofthemselves, already mentioned, of some of the Leyden chief people to thesmaller ship; but in the interests of the general welfare and of harmony,certain of the leaders, both of the Leyden and London contingents, wereof necessity provided for in the larger vessel. The allotments to therespective ships made at Southampton, the designation of quarters in theships themselves, and the final readjustments upon the MAY-FLOWER atPlymouth (England), when the remaining passengers of both ships had beenunited, were all necessarily determined chiefly with regard to the needsof the women, girls, and babes. Careful analysis of the list shows thatthere were, requiring this especial consideration, nineteen women, tenyoung girls, and one infant. Of the other children, none were so youngthat they might not readily bunk with or near their fathers in any partof the ship in which the latter might be located.
We know enough of the absolute unselfishness and devotion of all theLeyden leaders, whatever their birth or station,—so grandly proven inthose terrible days of general sickness and death at New Plymouth,—to becertain that with them, under all circumstances, it was noblesse oblige,and that no self-seeking would actuate them here. It should beremembered that the MAY-FLOWER was primarily a passenger transport, herpassengers being her principal freight and occupying the most of theship, the heavier cargo being chiefly confined to the "hold." As in thatday the passenger traffic was, of course, wholly by sailing vessels, theywere built with cabin accommodations for it, as to numbers, etc.,proportionately much beyond those of the sailing craft of to-day. Thetestimony of Captain John Smith, "the navigator," as to the passengers ofthe MAY-FLOWER "lying wet in their cabins," and that of Bradford as toBillington's "cabin between decks," already quoted, is conclusive as tothe fact that she had small cabins (the "staterooms" of to-day), intendedchiefly, no doubt, for women and children. The advice of Edward Winslowto his friend George Morton, when the latter was about to come to NewEngland in the ANNE, "build your cabins as open as possible,"is suggestive of close cabins and their discomforts endured upon theMAY-FLOWER. It also suggests that the chartering-party was expected inthose days to control, if not to do, the "fitting up" of the ship for hervoyage. In view of the usual "breadth of beam" of ships of her class andtonnage, aft, and the fore and aft length of the poop, it is notunreasonable to suppose that there were not less than four small cabinson either side of the comm