364 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



were strained, and one of the main beams amidships was bent 

 and cracked. A consultation was held between the seamen andj 

 passengers, and the question was seriously debated whether it' 

 would not be better to put back. It was fortunately discovered, 

 however, that one of the Dutch pilgrims had accidentally 

 brought on board a large iron screw, and this served to rivet the; 

 defective beam. The ship proceeded on her course, struggling 

 with westerly gales and tempestuous seas. For whole days 

 together she was compelled to lie to, or to scud with bare poles. 

 "Methinks," says Everett, "I see the adventurous vessel, the 

 Mayflower of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a 

 future State and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it 

 pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, tedious 

 voyage. Suns rise and set, weeks and months pass ; and winter 

 surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the 

 wished-for shore. I sec them now, scantily supplied with pro- 

 visions, crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison, 

 delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route, and now driven 

 in fury before the raging tempest on the high and giddy waves. 

 The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging ; the 



O CO o ' 



laboring masts seem straining from their base; the dismal sound 

 of the pumps is hc-xd ; the ship leaps, as it were, madly from 

 billow to billow; the ocean breaks and settles with engulfing 

 floods over the floating deck, and beats, with deadening, shiver- 

 ing weight, against the staggered vessel." Only one death 

 occurred during this terrible voyage, — a loss in numbers which 

 was made good by the birth of a boy, to whom was given the 

 name of Oceanus Hopkins. 



Sixty-four days had passed, and the 9th of November had 

 dawned. Upon this date the tempest-tossed pilgrims obtained 

 their first view of the American coast. "To the storm-ridden 

 voyager," writes one of their descendants, "exhausted by con- 

 finement and suffering, the sight of any shore, however wild, the 



