On this day in 1620, the Mayflower set sail from England to America. The colonists had a charter to settle in the northern part of Virginia (near present-day New York City), but claimed to have been set off course by bad weather and navigational mistake, and settled in Massachusetts instead. Dubious explanation. Anyway, I’m wondering how long it would have taken to sail from Provincetown Harbor to the mouth of the Hudson River (their original destination) once they realized their “error”?
It depends on the weather.
The minimum distance by sea is around 300 miles, which they could probably have done in 2 days given ideal conditions. But the course is mostly west - with prevailing westerly winds, progress could have been very much slower.
Note that they had been 66 days at sea, it was November and winter was clearly on the way - reasons not to press on.
Given that they spent the winter of 1619–1620 aboard ship anyway, would it matter if they took a few extra days at sail? Many historians think they had no intention of settling where they were chartered to settle.
They did make an attempt to reach “some place about Hudson’s river” after sighting the Cape, but they were turned back, so they said, by “dangerous shoals and roaring breakers.” Not everybody was happy with the decision to turn back. Captain Jones wrote of “Some hints of disaffection among colonists, on account of abandonment of location.”
If you don’t buy the “dangerous shoals” explanation, I came across three conspiracy theories while doing research several years ago.
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The Dutch bribed Captain Jones not to settle the English passengers in an area claimed but not yet settled by the Netherlands. This is an old idea, first proposed in 1669 by George Morton, a later immigrant to Plymouth.
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The Virginia Company of Plymouth, which controlled New England, conspired with the captain to settle the passengers in an area claimed by them, so as to strengthen their claims to the territory. This idea was popular in the nineteenth and early 20th century.
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The Separatists (religious passengers) conspired with the captain, at the expense of the non-Separatist (secular) passengers, to settle them outside the territory of the London Company, hence guaranteeing their independence from Jamestown.
Interesting. I didn’t know there was a Virginia Company of Plymouth.
After that trip, and finally, finally reaching land, the desperation to put it behind and get started on their new lives must have been palpable. Even the decision to leave the unpromising Cape and reboard the ships for the trip to Plymouth was a difficult one.
It later founded the California University of Pennsylvania.
(kidding!)