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Mayflower Was An Ocean Liner

Compared with some of the ships traversing the Atlantic in the early seventeenth century, the pilgrim ship Mayflower was in size an ocean liner. She certainly seems to have been one of the very largest of them, if not the largest.

For example, Drake’s exploring ships (1577) were from 15, tons to 100 tons. The Jamestown expedition to Virginia in 1607 had one ship of 20 tons with 21 persons aboard; one ship of 40 tons with 52 persons; and one ship of 100 tons with 71 per-sons. The Fortune, which arrived in Plymouth in 1621, with 29 passengers, was of 5 tons. And the Little James, arriving at Plymouth in 1623, was of 44 tons. But the Mayflower was a ship of 180 tons and carried 102 Pilgrims. Though we may speak of the “little” Mayflower, because we are comparing her with the enormously larger ships/of today, she was probably one of the largest vessels afloat in pilgrim times.

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