Answering, As The MAY-FLOWER Doubtless Did, To Her Type, She Was
Certainly Of Rather "Blocky," Though Not Unshapely, Build,
With high poop
and forecastle, broad of beam, short in the waist, low "between decks,"
and modelled far more upon
The lines of the great nautical prototype, the
water-fowl, than the requirements of speed have permitted in the carrying
trade of more recent years. That she was of the "square rig" of her
time - when apparently no use was made of the "fore-and-aft" sails which
have so wholly banished the former from all vessels of her size - goes
without saying. She was too large for the lateen rig, so prevalent in
the Mediterranean, except upon her mizzenmast, where it was no doubt
employed.
The chief differences which appear in the several "counterfeit
presentments" of the historic ship are in the number of her masts and
the height of her poop and her forecastle. A few make her a brig or
"snow" of the oldest pattern, while others depict her as a full-rigged
ship, sometimes having the auxiliary rig of a small "jigger" or
"dandy-mast," with square or lateen sail, on peak of stern, or on the
bow sprit, or both, though usually her mizzenmast is set well aft upon
the poop. There is no reason for thinking that the former of these
auxiliaries existed upon the MAY-FLOWER, though quite possible. Her 180
tons measurement indicates, by the general rule of the nautical
construction of that period, a length of from 90 to 100 feet, "from
taffrail to knighthead," with about 24 feet beam, and with such a hull
as this, three masts would be far more likely than two. The fact that
she is always called a "ship" - to which name, as indicating a class,
three masts technically attach - is also somewhat significant, though the
term is often generically used. Mrs. Jane G. Austin calls the
MAY-FLOWER a "brig," but there does not appear anywhere any warrant
for so doing.
At the Smithsonian Institution (National Museum) at Washington, D. C.,
there is exhibited a model of the MAY-FLOWER, constructed from the ratio
of measurements given in connection with the sketch and working plans of
a British ship of the merchant MAY-FLOWER class of the seventeenth
century, as laid down by Admiral Francois Edmond Paris, of France, in his
"Souvenirs de Marine." The hull and rigging of this model were carefully
worked out by, and under the supervision of Captain Joseph W. Collins
(long in the service of the Smithsonian Institution, in nautical and
kindred matters, and now a member of the Massachusetts Commission of
Inland Fisheries and Game), but were calculated on the erroneous basis of
a ship of 120 instead of 180 tons measurement. This model, which is upon
a scale of 1/2 inch to 1 foot, bears a label designating it as "The
'MAYFLOWER' of the Puritans" [sic], and giving the following description
(written by Captain Collins) of such a vessel as the Pilgrim ship, if of
120 tons burthen, as figured from such data as that given by Admiral
Paris, must, approximately, have been.
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