This There Is Ample Evidence Coppin Did Not Do, Going As He
Did To New England As "Second Mate" Or "Pilott" Of The MAY-FLOWER, Which
There Is No Reason To Doubt He Was When She Left London.
Neither is
there anywhere any suggestion that there was at Southampton any change in
the second mate of the larger ship, as there must have been to make good
the suggestion of Dr. Dexter.
Where the SPEEDWELL lay while being "refitted" has not been ascertained,
though presumably at Delfshaven, whence she sailed, though possibly at
one of the neighboring larger ports, where her new masts and cordage
could be "set up" to best advantage.
We know that Reynolds - "pilott" and "Master" went from London to
superintend the "making-ready" for sea. Nothing is known, however, of
his antecedents, and nothing of his history after he left the service of
the Pilgrims in disgrace, except that he appears to have come again to
New England some years later, in command of a vessel, in the service of
the reckless adventurer Weston (a traitor to the Pilgrims), through whom,
it is probable, he was originally selected for their service in Holland.
Bradford and others entitled to judge have given their opinions of this
cowardly scoundrel (Reynolds) in unmistakable terms.
What other officers and crew the pinnace had does not appear, and we know
nothing certainly of them, except the time for which they shipped; that
some of them were fellow-conspirators with the Master (self-confessed),
in the "strategem" to compel the SPEEDWELL'S abandonment of the voyage;
and that a few were transferred to the MAYFLOWER. From the fact that the
sailors Trevore and Ely returned from New Plymouth on the FORTUNE in
1621, "their time having expired," as Bradford notes, it may be fairly
assumed that they were originally of the SPEEDWELL'S crew.
That the fears of the SPEEDWELL'S men had been worked upon, and their
cooperation thus secured by the artful Reynolds, is clearly indicated by
the statement of Bradford: "For they apprehended that the greater ship
being of force and in which most of the provisions were stored, she would
retain enough for herself, whatever became of them or the passengers, and
indeed such speeches had been cast out by some of them."
Of the list of passengers who embarked at Delfshaven, July 22, 1620,
"bound for Southampton on the English coast, and thence for the northern
parts of Virginia," we fortunately have a pretty accurate knowledge.
All of the Leyden congregation who were to emigrate, with the exception
of Robert Cushman and family, and (probably) John Carver, were doubtless
passengers upon the SPEEDWELL from Delfshaven to Southampton, though the
presence of Elder Brewster has been questioned. The evidence that he was
there is well-nigh as conclusive as that Robert Cushman sailed on the
MAY-FLOWER from London, and that Carver, who had been for some months in
England, - chiefly at Southampton, making preparations for the voyage, was
there to meet the ships on their arrival.
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