The Topsail Halliards Were
Probably Trailing Alongside And Saved Him, As They Have Others Under
Like Circumstances.
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.
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