The Mayflower Postcard

"The Mayflower" and "The Speedwell" were to have travelled together to the new world, but it was discovered that "The Speedwell" was unfit for the voyage. "The Mayflower" departed from Plymouth, England carrying one hundred and two persons in all. The voyage was extremely rough and lasted about nine weeks. The Pilgrims had a charter from the Virginia Company and were to settle in an area south of the Hudson River. However, the captain took them to Cape Cod, which was outside the limits of the Virginia Company's doman. Sick and ship-weary, the Pilgrims chose to settle close to where they were. If you were to visit the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, 540 S. Commonwealth Ave, Los Angeles, CA and sit in their Shatto Chapel, you can get a feeling for the size of the ship as this Chapel is built to the same identical dimensions as the Mayflower (inverted). Imagine being trapped in a ship that small with over 100 other travel-weary and seasick fellow travelers and heading to you-knew-not-what and ask yourself if you would have been brave enough to make that voyage. In all honesty, I am not certain I could have handled it, but what a grand adventure it turned out to be.