Called
Into Requisition, Doubtless, In The Conferences As To The Condition Of
The SPEEDWELL, On Both Of Her Returns To
Port, at the inception of the
voyage, he was especially in evidence when, in mid-ocean, "the cracking
and bending
Of a great deck-beam," and the "shaken" condition of "the
upper works" of the MAY-FLOWER, gave rise to much alarm, and it was by
his labors and devices, and the use of the now famous "jack-screw," that
the bending beam and leaking deck were made secure. The repairs upon the
shallop in Cape Cod harbor also devolved upon him, and mention is made of
his illness and the dependence placed upon him. No doubt, in the
construction of the first dwellings and of the ordnance platform on the
hill, etc., he was the devising and principal workman. He undoubtedly
returned to England with the ship, and is known in history only by his
"billet," as "the carpenter" of the MAY-FLOWER.
The Master Gunner seems to have been a man with a proclivity for Indian
barter, that led him to seek a place with the "third expedition" at Cape
Cod, thereby nearly accomplishing his death, which indeed occurred later,
in Plymouth harbor, not long before the return of the ship.
The Boatswain is known, by Bradford's records, to have died in the
general sickness which attacked the crew while lying in Plymouth harbor.
The brief narrative of his sickness and death is all that we know of his
personality.
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