Tell me about the Mayflower?

I know it's a ship which sailed from England to Massachusetts in 1620, with Pilgrims on board, who settled there.





What exactly is it's significance in American history?

Tell me about the Mayflower?
The English ship the Mayflower carried the Separatist Puritans, later known as pilgrims, to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. The 180-ton vessel was about 12 years old and had been in the wine trade. It was chartered by John Carver, a leader of the Separatist congregation at Leiden, Holland, who had gone to London to make arrangements for the voyage to America. The ship was made ready at Southampton with a passenger list that included English Separatists, hired help (among them Myles Standish, a professional soldier, and John Alden, a cooper), and other colonists who were to be taken along at the insistence of the London businessmen who were helping to finance the expedition.





In the meantime the Leiden Separatists, who had initiated the venture, sailed for Southampton on July 22, 1620, with 35 members of the congregation and their leaders William Bradford and William Brewster aboard the 60-ton Speedwell. Both the Speedwell and the Mayflower, carrying a total of about 120 passengers, sailed from Southampton on August 15, but they were twice forced back by dangerous leaks on the Speedwell. At the English port of Plymouth some of the Speedwell's passengers were regrouped on the Mayflower, and on September 16, the historic voyage began.





This time the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, only 37 of whom were from the Leiden congregation, in addition to the crew. The voyage took 65 days, during which two persons died. A boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born at sea, and another, Peregrine White, was born as the ship lay at anchor off Cape Cod. The ship came in sight of Cape Cod on November 19 and sailed south. The colonists had been granted territory in Virginia but probably headed for a planned destination near the mouth of the Hudson River. The Mayflower turned back, however, and dropped anchor at Provincetown on November 21.





That day 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a "plantation covenant" modeled after a Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to establish a "Civil Body Politic" (a temporary government) and to be bound by its laws. This agreement was thought necessary because there were rumors that some of the non-Separatists, called "Strangers," among the passengers would defy the Pilgrims if they landed in a place other than that specified in the land grant they had received from the London Company. The compact became the basis of government in the Plymouth Colony. After it was signed, the Pilgrims elected John Carver their first governor.





After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth on Dec. 26, 1620. Although the Mayflower's captain and part-owner, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land, the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible winter of 1620-21, when half of the colonists died. The Mayflower left Plymouth on Apr. 15, 1621, and arrived back in England on May 16.





William Bradford's classic account of the Mayflower's voyage does not mention the ship by name, nor does it describe the vessel. In 1926, however, a model was constructed by R. C. Anderson from general information about late-16th-century merchant ships of its tonnage. This model, which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, gives the ship's dimensions as 90 ft (27.4 m) long, with a 64-ft (19.5-m) keel, 26-ft (7.9-m) beam,and a hold 11 ft (3.4 m) deep. In 1957 a close replica of the Mayflower, the Mayflower II, wasbuilt in 1957 by England as a gift to America and sailed from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth,Mass., where it is now on view. This is the only time that Mayflower II has sailed accross theAtlantic.





For nearly 38 years, this recreation of the Pilgrim's famous vessel has been little more than afloating museum confined to its pier near Plymouth Rock rarely leaving the dock, and when ithas, it has mainly reached its destination by tug.Modeled faithfuly after the slow andcumbersome 17th-century merchant vessels that sailed the waters between England andEurope, the Mayflower II lacks the most modern conveniences including an engine. It is hard tosteer and has an unsettling habit of rolling with sea.





In 1964 the ship went on a brief sail, and crews unfurled her sails briefly in 1990 and 1991, afterthe square-rigged ship went through major renovations to make her more seaworthy. In 1992, theMayflower II won approval to carry passengers after congress passed special legislation toloosen some of the Coast Guards strict certification guidelines. In 1992, the Mayflower II led aprocession of the Tall Ships through the Cape Cod Canal. In the end of that year, it left on a 4 month tour to Florida, however the ship was usually towed and very little sailing actually tookplace. The Plimoth Plantation which runs the Mayflower II as part of its living history exhibit hasadded radios, navigational equipment, electric bilge pumps and lifevests.





On July, 23, 1995, The Mayflower set sail again to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the original Mayflower's arrival to the new World.
Reply:They left to the new land to get away from religious persecution.
Reply:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower


This site will tell you all about it.
Reply:Over and above what the experts are likely to tell you, I learned something on Friday, the Mayflowere shouldn't be refered to as having set sail from Plymouth, England. It set sail from Southampton, England but one of the other ships in the convoy sprang a leak ( or two!) so they put into Plymouth to take the supplies off the leaking ship, left it at Plymouth and the Mayflower then continued to North America and the rest is history!
Reply:It is the symbol or mean the first colonists used to arrive in our coast looking for freedm
Reply:The mayflower grows after April showers. Oh! the Baron Pilgrims, they left England to escape religious persecution, only to persecute witches in Salem, Massachusetts. The significance of the English along with the French and Spanish was to begin robbing land from the original Americans, which were the caretakers and not owners and forcing them into ghettos called Indian Reservations..
Reply:Colonial American





http://www.uwm.edu/~jnelsen/ushist/conte...





The Mayflower





http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/may...





The Pilgrims: Voyage to Freedom





http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/arti...





http://www.pilgrimhall.org/voymayfl.htm





http://uk.geocities.com/haywardlass/





http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/coloniz.h...





http://www.oswego.org/staff/cchamber/res...





The Mayflower Compact


by William Bradford


November 11, 1620





http://www.nationalcenter.org/MayflowerC...





The Mayflower Compact 1620





After many difficulties in boisterous storms, at length by God’s providence...we espied land, which we deemed to be Cape Cod...and upon the 21 of November we came to anchor in the bay [Provincetown Harbor]...





http://www.pilgrimhall.org/compcon.htm





The Names of the Subscribers of the Mayflower Compact





http://members.aol.com/calebj/compact.ht...





Agreement Between the Settlers at New Plymouth : 1620





http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerdo...





http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates...





Plymouth: Its History and People





http://www.plimoth.org/learn/history/col...





http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/history/





Good luck.





Kevin, Liverpool, England.
Reply:One big important thing about the Mayflower was that the Mayflower Compact was signed on board this ship. Although not a constitution itself, the Mayflower Compact served as a precedent for later constitutions.
Reply:It was a boat. Skipper and Gilligan wrecked it on a desert island, and the rest is history.
Reply:Hello. the significance of the Mayflower to American History is that it was the very first documented time that the United States (the people who pre-dated the United States, anyway) began an active settling of the North American continent.


Whatever bad things happened afterwards is another question, but the Mayflower was a global indication that humanity had an extra continent on the earth they didn't really know about beforehand. Previously there was no 'documented' proof to the planet that North America was there, mostly heresay and rumor. Not everyone believed Columbus actually went there (yet). The landing of the Mayflower served to confirm that Christopher Columbus wasn't making up a sailor's story.