One of the founding events of the colonization of the United States was the arrival in 1620 in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, of a ship called Mayflower . On board were 102 people, including the Pilgrim Fathers who made history.
Two ships at the start, only one at the finish
The departure of the Mayflower is done in a tense political and religious context. Protestant dissidents, persecuted in England, decided to emigrate to the New World. They armed two ships: the Speedwell and the Mayflower .
The first left from Holland, while the second left the banks of the Thames in England. They were to meet off Southampton in August 1620 to sail together to Virginia. However, the Speedwell faced several damages from the start.
It was then decided to abandon the Speedwell . In Plymouth, England, some of the passengers of the latter boarded the Mayflower while the others return to the Netherlands.
The crossing of the Mayflower
The Mayflower the Fleur de Mai was a large sailing ship of nearly 27 meters and 180 tons, manned by a crew of about thirty men. She left Plymouth on September 16, 1620 to cross the Atlantic towards the New World.
Nearly two months later, on November 11, 1620, they arrived at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, far too far north of their original goal, which was to take them to Virginia.
The foundation of the new Plymouth
Before leaving the ship, some of the passengers sign the Mayflower Compact Act which laid the foundations for the administration of their colony. Determined to settle and prosper freely in the new world, they founded New Plymouth on December 21. Now called Plymouth, it is the second oldest surviving city in the United States.
A contemporary reproduction of the Mayflower
After the Second World War, a replica of the Mayflower was built in Brixham, England. Symbol of the alliance between England and the United States, she left the old Plymouth on April 20, 1957 to undertake the crossing of the Atlantic and arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts on June 22.
