(See Photographs Of The Model
Presented Herewith.) "A Wooden, Carvel-Built, Keel Vessel, With Full
Bluff Bow, Strongly Raking Below
Water line; raking curved stem; large
open head; long round (nearly log-shaped) bottom; tumble in top side;
short run;
Very large and high square stern; quarter galleries; high
forecastle, square on forward end, with open rails on each side; open
bulwarks to main [spar] and quarter-decks; a succession of three
quarter-decks or poops, the after one being nearly 9 feet above main
[spar] deck; two boats stowed on deck; ship-rigged, with pole masts
[i.e. masts in one piece]; without jibs; square sprit sail (or water
sail under bowsprit); two square sails on fore and main masts, and
lateen sail on mizzenmast."
Dimensions of Vessel. Length, over all, knightheads to taffrail, 82
feet; beam, 22 feet; depth, 14 feet; tonnage, 120; bowsprit, outboard, 40
feet 6 inches; spritsail yard, 34 feet 6 inches; foremast, main deck to
top, 39 feet; total length, main [spar] deck to truck, 67 feet 6 inches;
fore-yard, 47 feet 6 inches; foretopsail yard, 34 feet 1 2 inches;
mainmast, deck to top, 46 feet; total, deck to truck, 81 feet; main yard,
53 feet; maintopsail yard, 38 feet 6 inches; mizzen mast, deck to top, 34
feet; total, deck to truck, 60 feet 6 inches; spanker yard, 54 feet 6
inches; boats, one on port side of deck, 17 feet long by 5 feet 2 inches
wide; one on starboard side, 13 feet 6 inches long by 4 feet 9 inches
wide. The above description "worked out" by Captain Collins, and in
conformity to which his putative model of the "MAY FLOWER" was
constructed, rests, of course, for its correctness, primarily, upon the
assumptions (which there is no reason to question) that the "plates" of
Admiral Paris, his sketches, working plans, dimensions, etc., are
reliable, and that Captain Collins's mathematics are correct, in reducing
and applying the Admiral's data to a ship of 120 tons. That there would
be some considerable variance from the description given, in applying
these data to a ship of 60 tons greater measurement (i.e. of 180 tons),
goes without saying, though the changes would appear more largely in the
hull dimensions than in the rigging. That the description given, and its
expression in the model depicted, present, with considerable fidelity, a
ship of the MAY-FLOWER'S class and type, in her day, - though of sixty
tons less register, and amenable to changes otherwise, - is altogether
probable, and taken together, they afford a fairly accurate idea of the
general appearance of such a craft.
In addition to mention of the enlargements which the increased tonnage
certainly entails, the following features of the description seem to call
for remark.
It is doubtful whether the vessels of this class had "open bulwarks to
the main [spar] deck," or "a succession of three quarter-decks or poops."
Many models and prints of ships of that period and class show but two.
It is probable that if the jib was absent, as Captain Collins believes
(though it was evidently in use upon some of the pinnaces and shallops of
the time, and its utility therefore appreciated), there was a small
squaresail on a "dandy" mast on the bowsprit, and very possibly the
"sprit" or "water-sail" he describes.
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