Land Ahoy!

On this day in 1620 those who’d survived the perilous voyage across the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower set their eyes on America for the first time. It was late morning and the sun had risen behind the Mayflower and Captain Jones believed the land ahead was the ‘forearm’ of Cape Cod.  Slowly the landscape of sand with tree covered hills came nearer.  The intended site for the journey was the mouth of the Hudson River, which they were well north of.  The passengers had been granted land in this area which was a further 220 miles away. ​

When the Mayflower first sighted land on November 21st 1620 they had hoped to be further south and neared the mouth of the Hudson River.

Captain Jones had to make a decision – either continue south to the Hudson or head northwards into the bay of Cape Cod and to what is now known as Provincetown.  The first option depended on a north wind and would take several days, the second option would only take a few hours and required a southerly wind.  The occurrence of northerly wind helped him with the decision and so the Mayflower went south and into poorly chartered waters.  The threat of grounding the ship was high, so the leadsman constantly dropped the lead to measure the depth of the seabed.  

The route of the Mayflower from November 19th to November 21st 1620.

After 1pm the tide and wind became less favourable and the Mayflower found herself in the Pollark Rip, an ever-changing maze of shoals and sandbars. Fortunately, the wind and tide changed and towards late afternoon the Mayflower was sufficiently away from the dangers of the Rip.  With the change in the wind, they were now being pushed northwards and heading away from the mouth of the Hudson; Captain Jones decided to make for the protection of Cape Cod Bay.

Having sailed south, hazardous waters forced the crew of the Mayflower to consider other options.

The waters around Nantucket Sound are shallow and posed a threat to the Mayflower.

​The change in destination caused tension between the two groups of passengers, The Pilgrims and The Strangers, with the prospect of the new settlement being on land that they did not have permission to occupy.  The solution will be the subject of our next blog.

Land ahoy!

This scenes were built by James Pegrum and Dan Harris as part of a series of models on the voyage of the Mayflower. Follow us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see them first.