Blog 2: The voyage of the Mayflower

Everyone knows about the Pilgrims coming over from England on the Mayflower, and getting blown off course. However, if you look in to the story of their journey a little deeper some intriguing details emerge. For instance, few know of the Speedwell which was a second ship that was supposed to be traveling with the Mayflower to the New World. Unfortunately, the Speedwell had leaking problems twice that delayed the voyage by about a month. It was then decided that the Mayflower would make the voyage alone which was a risky proposition back in the day because there wasn't a national guard to save you in the case of a shipwreck. Once they were on their way finally, many passenger attest to the ironic story about a belligerent sailor. The story goes that the sailor would laugh and swear at the sea sick passengers, and he would say that when they die he was going to throw them over board and take their stuff. Fate would have it that the sailor got sick himself, and was the first to be thrown over board. Finally, one other interesting tidbit was the near death of John Howland. During one of the furious tempests the Mayflower encountered on her voyage, Howland was blown overboard. He managed to hang on to a part of the ship though until he was rescued by the crew. Howland's descendants include the likes of Presidents FDR and the Bushes, actor Humphrey Bogart, and the founder of the Mormons Joseph Smith.