Mayflower

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The Mayflower was the ship which transported the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England to "North Virginia" (in what was later to become the United States of America) in 1620, leaving Plymouth on September 6th and dropping anchor near Cape Cod on November 11th (both dates according to the Old Style or the Julian Calendar). This voyage followed and was inspired by the successful establishment of the first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, by the London Company of Virginia in 1607.

The ship Mayflower was used as a cargo ship trading (often in wine) between England and other European countries, principally France but also Norway, Germany and Spain. At least between 1609 and 1623 it was mastered by Christopher Jones, who was Captain on the trans-atlantic voyage, and based in Rotherhithe. He was buried in the graveyard of St. Mary's Rotherhithe following his death in March 1623, and it is likely that the ship was broken up for scrap lumber there in the following year. The Mayflower Barn situated just outside the small Quaker Village of Jordans in Buckinghamshire, England purports to be constructed from these timbers.

Details regarding the size and overall dimensions of the ship are unknown, but it has been estimated from its load weight and the usual size of 180-ton merchant ships in the period to be 90 to 110 feet in length and about 25 feet in width. The size of a ship is measured, not by its own weight, but by burden (the amount the ship can carry). The term "ton," as used to measure the burden of a ship, derives from the word "tun," a large cask used for storing wine as it was being shipped.