Had He Died On Shore It Is Very Certain That Some Of The
Leaders, Brewster, Bradford, Or Others, Would Have
Been witnesses, with
such of the ship's officers as could aid in proving the will in England.
It is equally
Evident that the officers of the ship were absent when
Master Mullens dictated his will, except perhaps the surgeon.
The number of seamen belonging to the ship is nowhere definitely stated.
At least four in the employ of the Pilgrims were among the passengers
and not enrolled upon the ships' lists. From the size of the ship,
the amount of sail she probably carried, the weight of her anchors,
and certain other data which appear, - such as the number allowed to
leave the ship at a time, etc., - it is probably not a wild estimate to
place their number at from twenty to twenty-five. This is perhaps a
somewhat larger number than would be essential to work the ship, and than
would have been shipped if the voyage had been to any port of a civilized
country; but on a voyage to a wild coast, the possibilities of long
absence and of the weakening of the crew by death, illness, etc.,
demanded consideration and a larger number. The wisdom and necessity
of carrying, on a voyage to an uninhabited country, some spare men,
is proven by the record of Bradford, who says: "The disease begane to
fall amongst them the seamen also, so as allmost halfe of their company
dyed before they went away and many of their officers and lustyest men;
as ye boatson, gunner, 3 quarter maisters, the cooke, and others."
The LADY ARBELLA, the "Admiral" of Governor Winthrop's fleet, a ship of
350 tons, carried 52 men, and it is a fair inference that the MAY-FLOWER,
of a little more than half her tonnage, would require at least half as
many.
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