mayflower

Mayflower was a 180-ton English sailing ship built circa 1609, likely at Harwich in Essex. It was a three-masted, square-rigged vessel owned by English merchants and used in Atlantic trade prior to 1620.

In 1620, Mayflower carried 102 passengers and a crew of about 30–40 from Plymouth, England on a voyage to the New World. The voyage began on September 16, 1620, and after about 65 days they reached Cape Cod in November, then settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Before disembarking, the passengers signed the Mayflower Compact, a short agreement creating a civil body politic to govern the colony, which is considered an important step in the development of self-government in what would become the United States.

After the first winter, the ship did not remain in service and was likely dismantled in the early 1620s; its timbers were reused in the Plymouth area, and the vessel itself did not survive into the modern era.

Legacy: The Mayflower story is central to the founding of Plymouth Colony and American memory of religious dissent and colonial settlement. A replica, Mayflower II, was built in 1956–57 and stands at Plymouth, Massachusetts, as a museum ship and reminder of the 1620 voyage.