Whether Or Not The MAY-FLOWER Had The "Round House" Under Her Poop-Deck,
- -A Sort Of Circular-End Deck-
House, more especially the quarters, by
day, of the officers and favored passengers; common, but apparently not
universal, in vessels
Of her class, - we have no positive knowledge, but
the presumption is that she had, as passenger ships like the PARAGON (of
only 140 tons), and others of less tonnage, seem to have been so fitted!
It is plain that, in addition to the larger cabin space and the smaller
cabins, - "staterooms," nowadays, - common to ships of the MAY-FLOWER'S
size and class, the large number of her passengers, and especially of
women and children, made it necessary to construct other cabins between
decks. Whether these were put up at London, or Southampton, or after the
SPEEDWELL'S additional passengers were taken aboard at Plymouth, does not
appear. The great majority of the men and boys were doubtless provided
with bunks only, "between decks," but it seems that John Billington had a
cabin there. Bradford narrates of the gunpowder escapade of young
Francis Billington, that, "there being a fowling-piece, charged in his
father's cabin [though why so inferior a person as Billington should have
a cabin when there could not have been enough for better men, is a query],
shot her off in the cabin, there being a little barrel of powder
half-full scattered in and about the cabin, the fire being within four
feet of the bed, between the decks, . . . and many people gathered
about the fire," etc.
Whatever other deductions may be drawn from this very badly constructed
and ambiguous paragraph of Bradford, two things appear certain, - one,
that Billington had a "cabin" of his own "between decks;" and the other,
that there was a "fire between decks," which "many people" were gathered
"about." We can quite forgive the young scamp for the jeopardy in which
he placed the ship and her company, since it resulted in giving us so
much data concerning the MAY-FLOWER'S "interior." Captain John Smith's
remark, already quoted, as to the MAY-FLOWER'S people "lying wet in their
cabins," is a hint of much value from an experienced navigator of that
time, as to the "interior" construction of ships and the bestowal of
passengers in them, in that day, doubtless applicable to the MAY-FLOWER.
While it was feasible, when lying quietly at anchor in a land-locked
harbor, with abundance of fire-wood at hand, to have a fire, about which
they could gather, even if only upon the "sand-hearth" of the early
navigators, when upon boisterous seas, in mid-ocean, "lying . . . in
their cabins" was the only means of keeping warm possible to voyagers.
In "Good Newes from New England," we find the lines: -
"Close cabins being now prepared,
With bred, bief, beire, and fish,
The passengers prepare themselves,
That they might have their wish."
Her magazine, carpenter's and sailmaker's lockers, etc., were doubtless
well forward under her forecastle, easily accessible from the spar-deck,
as was common to merchant vessels of her class and size. Dr. Young, in
his "Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers" (p. 86, note), says: "This vessel
was less than the average size of the fishing-smacks that go to the Grand
Banks. This seems a frail bark in which to cross a stormy ocean of three
thousand miles in extent. Yet it should be remembered that two of the
ships of Columbus on his first daring and perilous voyage of discovery,
were light vessels, without decks, little superior to the small craft
that ply on our rivers and along our coasts . . . . Frobisher's fleet
consisted of two barks of twenty-five tons each and a pinnace of ten
tons, when he sailed in 1576 to discover a north-west passage to the
Indies. Sir Francis Drake, too, embarked on his voyage for
circumnavigating the globe, in 1577, with five vessels, of which the
largest was of one hundred, and the smallest fifteen tons. The bark in
which Sir Humphrey Gilbert perished was of ten tons only." The LITTLE
JAMES, which the Company sent to Plymouth in July, 1623, was "a pinnace
of only forty-four tons," and in a vessel of fifty tons (the SPEEDWELL),
Martin Pring, in 1603, coasted along the shores of New England. Goodwin
says: "In 1587 there were not in all England's fleet more than five
merchant vessels exceeding two hundred tons." The SPARROW-HAWK wrecked
on Cape Cod in 1626 was only 40 feet "over all." The Dutch seem to have
built larger vessels. Winthrop records that as they came down the
Channel, on their way to New England (1630), they passed the wreck of
"a great Dutch merchantman of a thousand tons."
The MAY-FLOWER'S galley, with its primitive conditions for cooking,
existed rather as a place for the preparation of food and the keeping of
utensils, than for the use of fire. The arrangements for the latter were
exceedingly crude, and were limited to the open "hearth-box" filled with
sand, the chief cooking appliance being the tripod-kettle of the early
navigators: This might indeed be set up in any part of the ship where the
"sand-hearth" could also go, and the smoke be cared for. It not
infrequently found space in the fore castle, between decks, and, when
fine weather prevailed, upon the open deck, as in the open caravels of
Columbus, a hundred years before. The bake-kettle and the frying-pan
held only less important places than the kettle for boiling. It must have
been rather a burst of the imagination that led Mrs. Austin, in "Standish
of Standish," to make Peter Browne remind poor half-frozen Goodman - whom
he is urging to make an effort to reach home, when they had been lost,
but had got in sight of the MAY-FLOWER In the harbor - of "the good fires
aboard of her." Moreover, on January 22, when Goodman was lost, the
company had occupied their "common-house" on shore.
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