This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an entire meal of them. D.W.]
THE MAY-FLOWER AND HER LOG
July 15, 1620--May 6, 1621 Chiefly from Original Sources
By AZEL AMES, M.D. Member of Pilgrim Society, etc.
BOOK 5.
CHAPTER VII
QUARTERS, COOKING, PROVISIONS
Probably no more vexatious problem presented itself for the time being to the "governors" of the two vessels and their "assistants," upon their selection, than the assignment of quarters to the passengers allotted to their respective ships. That these allotments were in a large measure determined by the requirements of the women and children may be considered certain. The difficulties attendant on due recognition of social and official station (far more imperative in that day than this) were in no small degree lessened by the voluntary assignment of themselves, already mentioned, of some of the Leyden chief people to the smaller ship; but in the interests of the general welfare and of harmony, certain of the leaders, both of the Leyden and London contingents, were of necessity provided for in the larger vessel. The allotments to the respective ships made at Southampton, the designation of quarters in the ships themselves, and the final readjustments upon the MAY-FLOWER at Plymouth (England), when the remaining passengers of both ships had been united, were all necessarily determined chiefly with regard to the needs of the women, girls, and babes. Careful analysis of the list shows that there were, requiring this especial consideration, nineteen women, ten young girls, and one infant. Of the other children, none were so young that they might not readily bunk with or near their fathers in any part of the ship in which the latter might be located.
We know enough of the absolute unselfishness and devotion of all the Leyden leaders, whatever their birth or station,--so grandly proven in those terrible days of general sickness and death at New Plymouth,--to be certain that with them, under all circumstances, it was noblesse oblige, and that no self-seeking would actuate them here. It should be remembered that the MAY-FLOWER was primarily a passenger transport, her passengers being her principal freight and occupying the most of the ship, the heavier cargo being chiefly confined to the "hold." As in that day the passenger traffic was, of course, wholly by sailing vessels, they were built with cabin accommodations for it, as to numbers, etc., proportionately much beyond those of the sailing craft of to-day. The testimony of Captain John Smith, "the navigator," as to the passengers of the MAY-FLOWER "lying wet in their cabins," and that of Bradford as to Billington's "cabin between decks," already quoted, is conclusive as to the fact that she had small cabins (the "staterooms" of to-day), intended chiefly, no doubt, for women and children. The advice of Edward Winslow to his friend George Morton, when the latter was about to come to New England in the ANNE, "build your cabins as open as possible," is suggestive of close cabins and their discomforts endured upon the MAY-FLOWER. It also suggests that the chartering-party was expected in those days to control, if not to do, the "fitting up" of the ship for her voyage. In view of the usual "breadth of beam" of ships of her class and tonnage, aft, and the fore and aft length of the poop, it is not unreasonable to suppose that there were not less than four small cabins on either side of the common (open) cabin or saloon (often depicted as the signing-place of the Compact), under the high poop deck. Constructed on the general plan of such rooms or cabins to-day (with four single berths, in tiers of two on either hand), there would be--if the women and girls were conveniently distributed among them--space for all except the Billingtons, who we know had a cabin (as had also doubtless several of the principal men) built between decks. This would also leave an after cabin for the Master, who not infrequently made his quarters, and those of his chief officer, in the "round house," when one existed, especially in a crowded ship.
