Knowing That The Adventurers' Agents Were Seeking Both A Ship And A
Master For Her, It Was The Natural Thing For The Latter, That He Should
Propose The Captain Under Whom He Had Last Sailed, On Much The Same
Voyage As That Now Contemplated.
It is an interesting fact that
something of the uncertainty which for a time existed as to the names and
features of the Pilgrim barks attaches the names and identity of their
respective commanders.
The "given" name of "Master" Reynolds, "pilott"
and "Master" of the SPEED WELL, does not appear, but the assertion of
Professor Arber, though positive enough, that "the Christian name of the
Captain of the MAY-FLOWER is not known," is not accepted by other
authorities in Pilgrim history, though it is true that it does not find
mention in the contemporaneous accounts of the Pilgrim ship and her
voyage.
There is no room for doubt that the Captain of the FALCON - whose release
from arrest while under charge of piracy the Earl of Warwick procured,
that he might take command of the above-named cattle-ship on her voyage
to Virginia, as hereinafter shown - was Thomas Jones. The identity of
this man and "Master Jones" who assumed command of the MAY-FLOWER - with
the former mate of the FALCON, John Clarke, as his first officer - is
abundantly certified by circumstantial evidence of the strongest kind, as
is also the fact that he commanded the ship DISCOVERY a little later.
With the powerful backing of such interested friends as the Earl of
Warwick and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, undoubtedly already in league with
Thomas Weston, who probably made the contract with Jones,
as he had with Clarke, the suggestion of the latter as to the competency
and availability of his late commander would be sure of prompt approval,
and thus, in all probability, Captain Thomas Jones, who finds his chief
place in history - and a most important one - as Master of the MAY-FLOWER,
came to that service.
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