John Carver - Mayflower Voyage

Mayflower Voyage

Carver chartered the Mayflower and with 101 other colonists, he set sail from Plymouth, England, in September 1620. Carver traveled on the Mayflower in a style in accordance with his wealth. In addition to his wife Katherine, he was accompanied by five servants. On the Mayflower the Carvers had been guardians of Jasper More, one of the four More children onboard, but who had died in early December along with others who were starting to die in the early bitter winter weather. It is unknown whether these Pilgrims knew of the children’s circumstances or not. Prior to that discovery, it may have been thought the four More children were parentless London street waifs or children of people on Church relief, who were unwillingly sent to the New World by the Virginia Company as indentured labor. Of these children, only Richard More survived.

They departed Plymouth, England on the Mayflower on September 6/16, 1620 with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members in a small 100 foot ship. The first month in the Atlantic, the seas were not severe, but by the second month the ship was being hit by strong north-Atlantic winter gales causing the ship to be badly shaken with water leaks from structural damage. There were two deaths, but this was just a precursor of what happened after their Cape Cod arrival, when almost half the company would die in the first winter.

On November 9/19, 1620, after about 3 months at sea, including a month of delays in England, they spotted land, which was Cape Cod. And after several days of trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, where they anchored on November 11/21. The Mayflower Compact was signed that day.