After 10 weeks at sea, Mayflower, with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reached what is today the United States, dropping anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on November 21 [O.S.

[5] A congregation of approximately 400 English Protestants living in exile in Leiden, Holland, were dissatisfied with the failure of the Church of England to reform what they felt were many excesses and abuses.

[6] The government of Leiden was recognized for offering financial aid to reformed churches, whether English, French or German, which made it a sought-after destination for Protestant intellectuals.

In addition, a number of the country's leading theologians began engaging in open debates which led to civil unrest, instilling the fear that Spain might again place Holland's population under siege, as it had done years earlier.

[6] But despite all the arguments against traveling to this new land, their conviction that God wanted them to go held sway: "We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us," they wrote, "and that he will graciously prosper our indeavours, according to the simplicity of our hearts therein.

Although the congregation had been led by John Robinson, who first proposed the idea of emigrating to America, he chose to remain in Leiden to care for those who could not make the voyage.

[8] In explaining to his congregation why they should emigrate, Robinson used the analogy of the ancient Israelites leaving Babylon to escape bondage by returning to Jerusalem, where they would build their temple.

[9][10]: 39 When it was time to leave, the ship's senior leader, Edward Winslow, described the scene of families being separated at the departure: "A flood of tears was poured out.

To see what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound among them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each heart...their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him...[12]: 23 The trip to the south coast of England took three days, where the ship took anchor at Southampton on August 5 [O.S.

September 6], 1620, with what Bradford called "a prosperous wind",[17]: 29  she carried 102 passengers plus a crew of 25 to 30 officers and men, bringing the total aboard to approximately 130.

"[1]: 44  In a similar vein, early American writer James Russell Lowell stated, "Next to the fugitives whom Moses led out of Egypt, the little shipload of outcasts who landed at Plymouth are destined to influence the future of the world.

[23][page needed][17]: 4  In the midst of one storm, William Butten, the young, indentured servant of physician Samuel Fuller, died—the sole fatality of the voyage[16]: 350 —and was buried at sea.

[1]: 53 [24]: 66 It was before setting anchor that the male Pilgrims and non-Pilgrim passengers (whom members of the congregation referred to as "Strangers") drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact.

[26][27][28][29] Myles Standish was selected to make sure the rules were obeyed, as there was a consensus that discipline would need to be enforced to ensure the survival of the planned colony.

They were forced to spend the night ashore because of the bad weather they encountered, ill-clad in below-freezing temperatures with wet shoes and stockings that froze overnight.

[32] Historian Benson John Lossing described that first settlement: After many hardships ... the Pilgrim Fathers first set foot December, 1620 upon a bare rock on the bleak coast of Massachusetts Bay, while all around the earth was covered with deep snow ...

He also transported hats, hemp, Spanish salt, hops, and vinegar to Norway, and he may have taken Mayflower whaling in the North Atlantic off Spitsbergen or sailed to Mediterranean ports.

Some of the records of the period might have been lost, or this might be due to the unusual way in which the transfer of the pilgrims was arranged from Leyden to New England[citation needed] Jones was one of the owners of the ship by 1620, along with Christopher Nichols, Robert Child, and Thomas Short.

Weston had a significant role in Mayflower voyage due to his membership in the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, and he eventually traveled to the Plymouth Colony himself.

The appraisal was made by four mariners and shipwrights of Rotherhithe (the home and burial place of Captain Jones), where Mayflower apparently was then lying in the Thames at London.

[42] Mayflower was square-rigged with a beakhead bow and high, castle-like structures fore and aft that protected the crew and the main deck from the elements: designs that were typical of English merchant ships of the early 17th century.

Her stern carried a 30-foot-high (9 m), square aft-castle which made the ship difficult to sail close to the wind and not well suited against the North Atlantic's prevailing westerlies, especially in the fall and winter of 1620; the voyage from England to America took more than two months as a result.

Far forward on the main deck, just aft of the bow, was the forecastle space where the ship's cook prepared meals for the crew; it may also have been where the sailors slept.

On this deck stood the poop house, which was ordinarily a chart room or a cabin for the master's mates on most merchant ships, but it might have been used by the passengers on Mayflower, either for sleeping or cargo.

Forward on the gun deck in the bow area was a windlass, similar in function to the steerage capstan, which was used to raise and lower the ship's main anchor.

[19]: 37 According to author Charles Banks, the officers and crew of Mayflower consisted of a captain, four mates, four quartermasters, surgeon, carpenter, cooper, cooks, boatswains, gunners, and about 36 men before the mast, making a total of about 50.

[17]: 4–5  As described by Richard Bevan: Out of all the voyages to the American colonies from 1620 to 1640, the Mayflower's first crossing of Pilgrim Fathers has become the most culturally iconic and important in the history of migration from Europe to the New World during the Age of Discovery.

The mayor of New York, John Francis Hylan, in his speech, said that the principles of the Pilgrim's Mayflower Compact were precursors to the United States Declaration of Independence.

"[1]: 55  Governor Calvin Coolidge similarly credited the forming of the Compact as an event of the greatest importance in American history: It was the foundation of liberty based on law and order, and that tradition has been steadily upheld.

[57] Among some of the events to mark the anniversary was a crossing of the Atlantic by the Mayflower Autonomous Ship, without any persons aboard, which used an AI captain designed by IBM to self-navigate across the ocean.