Her Ordnance
Doubtless Comprised Several Heavy Guns (As Such Were Then Reckoned),
Mounted On The Spar-Deck Amid Ships, With Lighter Guns Astern And On.
The Rail, And A Piece Of Longer Range And Larger Calibre Upon The
Forecastle.
Such was the general disposal of ordnance upon merchant
vessels of her size in that day, when an armament was a 'sine qua non'.
Governor Winslow in his "Hypocrisie Unmasked," 1646 (p. 91), says, in
writing of the departure of the Pilgrims from Delfshaven, upon the
SPEEDWELL:
"The wind being fair we gave them a volley of small shot and
three pieces of ordnance," by which it seems that the SPEEDWELL, of only
sixty tons, mounted at least "three pieces of ordnance" as, from the form
of expression, there seem to have been "three pieces," rather than three
discharges of the same piece.
The inference is warranted that the MAY-FLOWER, being three times as
large, would carry a considerably heavier and proportionate armament.
The LADY ARBELLA, Winthrop's ship, a vessel of 350 tons, carried
"twenty-eight pieces of ordnance;" but as "Admiral" of the fleet, at a
time when there was a state of war with others, and much piracy, she
would presumably mount more than a proportionate weight of metal,
especially as she convoyed smaller and lightly armed vessels, and
carried much value. There is no reason to suppose that the MAY-FLOWER,
in her excessively crowded condition, mounted more than eight or ten
guns, and these chiefly of small calibre. Her boats included her
"long-boat," with which the experience of her company in "Cape Cod harbor"
have made us familiar, and perhaps other smaller boats, - besides the
Master's "skiff" or "gig," of whose existence and necessity there are
numerous proofs. "Monday the 27," Bradford and Winslow state, "it
proved rough weather and cross winds, so as we were constrained, some in
the shallop and others in the long-boat," etc. Bradford states, in
regard to the repeated springings-a-leak of the SPEEDWELL: "So the
Master of the bigger ship, called Master Jones, being consulted with;"
and again, "The Master of the small ship complained his ship was so
leaky . . . so they [Masters Jones and Reynolds] came to
consultation, again," etc. It is evident that Jones was obliged to
visit the SPEEDWELL to inspect her and to consult with the leaders, who
were aboard her. For this purpose, as for others, a smaller boat than
the "long-boat" would often serve, while the number of passengers and
crew aboard would seem to demand still other boats. Winthrop notices
that their Captain (Melborne) frequently "had his skiff heaved out," in
the course of their voyage. The Master's small boat, called the "skiff"
or "gig," was, no doubt, stowed (lashed) in the waist of the ship, while
the "long-boat" was probably lashed on deck forward, being hoisted out
and in, as the practice of those days was, by "whips," from the
yardarms. It was early the habit to keep certain of the live-stock,
poultry, rabbits, etc., in the unused boats upon deck, and it is
possible that in the crowded state of the MAY-FLOWER this custom was
followed. Bradford remarks that their "goods or common store . . .
were long in unlading [at New Plimoth] for want of boats." It seems
hardly possible that the Admiralty authorities, - though navigation laws
were then few, crude, and poorly enforced, - or that the Adventurers and
Pilgrim chiefs themselves, would permit a ship carrying some 130 souls
to cross the Atlantic in the stormy season, without a reasonable boat
provision. The capacity of the "long-boat" we know to have been about
twenty persons, as nearly that number is shown by Bradford and Winslow
to have gone in her on the early expeditions from the ship, at Cape Cod.
She would therefore accommodate only about one sixth of the ship's
company. As the "gig" would carry only five or six persons, - while the
shallop was stowed between decks and could be of no service in case of
need upon the voyage, - the inference is warranted that other boats were
carried, which fail of specific mention, or that she was wofully
lacking. The want of boats for unlading, mentioned by Bradford, suggests
the possibility that some of the ship's quota may have been lost or
destroyed on her boisterous voyage, though no such event appears of
record, or is suggested by any one. In the event of wreck, the Pilgrims
must have trusted, like the Apostle Paul and his associates when cast
away on the island of Melita, to get to shore, "some on boards and some
on broken pieces of the ship." Her steering-gear, rigging, and the
mechanism for "getting her anchors," "slinging," "squaring," and
"cockbilling" her yards; for "making" and "shortening" sail; "heaving
out" her boats and "handling" her cargo, were of course all of the crude
and simple patterns and construction of the time, usually so well
illustrating the ancient axiom in physics, that "what is lost [spent] in
power is gained in time."
The compass-box and hanging-compass, invented by the English cleric,
William Barlow, but twelve years before the Pilgrim voyage, was almost
the only nautical appliance possessed by Captain Jones, of the
MAY-FLOWER, in which no radical improvement has since been made.
Few charts of much value - especially of western waters - had yet been
drafted, but the rough maps and diagrams of Cabot, Smith, Gosnold,
Pring, Champlain and Dermer, Jones was too good a navigator not to have
had. In speaking of the landing at Cape Cod, the expression is used by
Bradford in "Mourt's Relation," "We went round all points of the
compass," proving that already the mariner's compass had become familiar
to the speech even of those not using it professionally.
That the ship was "well-found" in anchors (with solid stocks), hemp
cables, "spare" spars, "boat-tackling" and the heavy "hoisting-gear" of
those days, we have the evidence of recorded use.
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