1. Besides the crew, there were 104 passengers aboard the Mayflower: 56 men, 18 wives (no single women allowed), 28 children, and 2 dogs.
2. Of the passengers aboard the Mayflower, approximately half were seeking freedom to worship how they wanted; the others were along to make the trip successful—and profitable. Today, historians refer to the two groups as the "Saints" and the "Strangers."
3. One passenger died while on the Mayflower, and one was born. The newborn’s name was Oceanus Hopkins.
4. True to the Puritan tradition, a handful of the passengers aboard the Mayflower had “virtuous”—or at least descriptive—names: Love Brewster, Wrestling Brewster (brothers), Humility Cooper, Remember Allerton, Constance Hopkins, and Resolved White.
5. The Mayflower’s original destination was the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York City; however, the ship got off course and anchored in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, before moving on to Plymouth.
6. Although the Mayflower landed in mid-November, its passengers didn’t move ashore until mid-March; cold weather forced them to live on board the ship for about four months.
7. The name “Pilgrims” was coined by one of the Mayflower passengers—a thirty-year old corduroy worker named William Bradford—who wrote of the passengers, “they knew they were pilgrims.”
8. The Mayflower was known as a “sweet ship” because it had previously been used to transport English wool to France and return to London with French wine. Since wine spilled out onto the ship it tempered the usual sea boat stench.
9. The Pilgrims originally headed to America aboard two ships—the Speedwell and the Mayflower—but the Speedwell had to turn back because of leaks. It was later learned that Mr. Reynolds, master of the Speedwell, had fitted the ship with larger masts than it needed so the strain would force the planks apart and cause leaks. It’s believed Reynolds sabotaged the ship because he didn't want to go to America.
10.  In 1955–56, in cooperation with the Plymouth Plantation, Englishman Warwick Charlton built a true-to-life replica of the Mayflower. A small crew recreated the original Mayflower voyage by sailing it across the ocean in April of 1957. Click here to read more about the voyage.

*This information was taken from Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick, and Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620–1691, by Eugene Aubrey Stratton.

To return to the main Mayflower article, click here.