Mayflower
 " Mayflower in Plymouth", by William Halsall (1882)
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The Mayflower was a sailing ship with which the " Pilgrim Fathers " (eng. Pilgrim Fathers ), many of which are from the Midlands came, left for America, there to lead a new life. The Mayflower stung on September 6th July. / September 16, 1620 greg. of Plymouth , the boat and reached instead for the desired destination Virginia the Cape Cod where the settlers on November 11 jul. / November 21, 1620 greg. near what is now Provincetownwent ashore. Two people died and a child was born during the crossing. After two failed attempts to sail to Virginia in this stormy winter, the passengers finally spent the winter on the ship, which was anchored again at the northern tip of Cape Cod Bay . In these terribly cramped and hygienically catastrophic conditions, pneumonia and tuberculosis decimated the settlers, and there were also many children among the dead. On March 21, Jul. / March 31, 1621 greg. one began with the settlement of the coast at the future Plymouth (Massachusetts) . The Mayflower stung on April 5th July. / April 15, 1621 greg. to return to England at sea.
There were 102 passengers and 31 crew on board the Mayflower . The ship's captain was Christopher Jones . He and partners had bought it in 1607 or 1608 for the transport of goods between England and La Rochelle . Wine in particular was imported from the mainland to the British Isles. The ship was about 28 meters long, 9 meters wide and had a draft of around 4 meters. The English merchant Thomas Weston had cabins built in the ship in 1619 (the narrowest ones on the lower deck were only approx. 80 × 50 cm) and organized the passage of the pilgrims, who, like himself, were mostly members of the Calvinist group persecuted in England at the time the separatists were.
Many Americans, especially the New England upscale families , attempt to trace their ancestry back to a passenger on the Mayflower . The "General Society of Mayflower Descendants" was founded in 1897 in Plymouth (Massachusetts).
The journey of the Mayflower is the most prominent example of the colonization of America by Europeans and is sometimes misrepresented as the beginning of it. In fact, the colonization of North America began in the modern era center already the 16th century with the colonization of Newfoundland , the city is St. John's with the appropriation by the English crown in 1583 as the oldest British colony for almost 40 years before crossing the Mayflower.
literature
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Nathaniel Philbrick , translated into German by Norbert Juraschitz: Mayflower. Departure to the New World. Blessing, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89667-229-0 .
- Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower. A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Viking, New York City 2006, ISBN 0-670-03760-5 . (English)
Web links
- List of Mayflower passengers (English page)
- Mayflower History
Individual evidence
- ^ Ole Helmhausen: USA. 6th edition. Baedeker travel guide. 2009, ISBN 978-3-8297-1160-9 , p. 372. accessed on November 2, 2010.