It Would, In View Of The Hardship Of The
Voyage, Have Been Very Remarkable If This Had Not Been The Case.
It
would have been still more remarkable if the ill-conditioned,
thin-blooded, town-bred "servants" and apprentices had not suffered
first and most.
It is significant that eight out of nine of the male
"servants" should have died in the first four months. It was impossible
that scurvy should not have been prevalent with both passengers and
crew.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MAY-FLOWER'S LADING
Beside her human freight of one hundred and thirty or more passengers and
crew, the lading of the MAY-FLOWER when she sailed from Plymouth
(England), September 6/16, 1620, was considerable and various. If
clearing at a custom-house of to-day her manifest would excite no little
interest and surprise. Taking no account of the ship's stores and
supplies (necessarily large, like her crew, when bound upon such a
voyage, when every possible need till her return to her home port must be
provided for before sailing), the colonists' goods and chattels were
many, their provisions bulky, their ordnance, arms, and stores (in the
hold) heavy, and their trading-stock fairly ample. Much of the cargo
originally stowed in the SPEEDWELL, a part, as we know, of her company,
and a few of her crew were transferred to the MAY-FLOWER at Plymouth, and
there can be no doubt that the ship was both crowded and overladen.
It is altogether probable that the crowded condition of her spar and main
decks caused the supply of live-stock taken - whether for consumption upon
the voyage or for the planters' needs on shore - to be very limited as to
both number and variety.
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