How 102 Pilgrims crammed inside the Mayflower a year before their first Thanksgiving

It’s been several years since I’ve toured the Mayflower II in Plymouth Harbor, but I remember, as a young student visitor it seemed much larger then when I saw it for the first time as an adult. I can’t imagine how any of them survived the journey. These brave, God praising people are my ancestors. I am directly descended from about half of them; and I am related, as a niece or cousin, to another quarter of them and the final quarter, I’ve yet to find any ancestral family ties with. Three of my four grandparents are Mayflower Pilgrim descendants, while one grandmothers was mostly Irish and a bit of Scot, though one of her ancestors, may or may not be a possible Pilgrim descendant, as he seems to be of English descent, yet so far his line dead ends with his parents name on his death record.

Also the drawing makes the ship appear spacious, yet it is so tiny, I’m not sure its any bigger then my house, which is small by today’s standards. I can’t imagine housing 102+ people in my home, even with a modern kitchen and bathroom.

"It’s dark. It smells. It’s wet and very cold. There’s no privacy. No bathrooms. Your meals are pitiful — salted meat and a hard, dry biscuit."

And that was while they were still in England! Lucky for them, Elizabeth Warren's great, great, great, great, great third cousin twice removed greated them with a full turkey dinner buffet on their arrival.

That whole post is incredible.

What a horrific journey and very courageous people.

I CANT FATHOM you guys being here like 400 years!!!!!!!!

My pop was born in Italy in 1920!!

Came here as as kid at around 1927.

We are not yet here 100 years.

As patriotic as I am, it makes you feel like you are still a little bit on the outside looking in.

My nephews and nieces don’t feel that at all.

That would make sense, by the third generation.

What a fantastic history you have.

The first illegal aliens were the people who are now claiming “native” American status.

Illegal? That's a stretch. Anyway, we have our own history out here in California, less known than what is taught because the east coasters started the country as a nation.

Anyway, illegal aliens here could have been the Russians. They set up a colony just north of San Francisco (SF was known as Yerba Buena at the time). The Spanish were alarmed at the "invasion" of the Russians, and were preparing to do battle with them. A Russian ship came down from Fort Ross area and sailed in SF Bay. The Spanish cannons at the entrance didn't fire, and the Spanish met with the Russians. All the Russians wanted to do was trade and hunt, and agreements were worked out. Even some romantic intermingling went on. Russians eventually left, not interested at all in a conquest of California, and the Spanish got it all. History would have been drastically different if the Russians decided to stay and take SF.

One of the reasons the Spanish initially set up fortifications in SF (same time as the American Revolution was going on), was to stop English and Russian incursions into the area. Sir Francis Drake was an English pirate holing up in the SF Bay Area a couple centuries prior, but couldn't be called an illegal alien because Spain hadn't yet laid claim to California. But the Russians could be called illegals - maybe.

I love to tell the story of how I am descended from a guy who fell OFF of the Mayflower...John Howland! It is true, BTW.

I think I read somewhere that that rope was sometimes left trailing behind the ship for just the reason the if a person fell overboard they could grab onto it.

Jamestown, Virginia was first settled over a decade before Plymouth Rock. They had a government up and running, the House of Burgesses, before the Mayflower ever accidentally blundered into Cape Cod on their way to a land grant in...

Virginia. True.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.