Speedwell.jpg

Speedwell

Privacy Level: Public (Green)
Date: 1577 [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
This page has been accessed 5,144 times.

The Speedwell was a standard 60-ton ship hired to travel alongside the Mayflower when the Pilgrims traveled from England to The New World.

Built in 1577, the Speedwell was originally named Swiftsure. She was commissioned as part of the English fleet during the was against Spain. She served in several naval battles and, during the 1596 expedition to the Azores, she was the ship of Sir Gilly Merick, second in command to the Earl of Essex. She was decommissioned in 1605 when hostilities against Spain ended. After being rebuilt, she was renamed Speedwell.

She was purchased by the Leiden Separatists in Holland, where it was boarded and set to sail to Southampton, England to meet with the Mayflower.

On 5 August, 1620, the two ships set sail, but the Speedwell was forced to return to harbor in Dartmouth due to a leak. After repairs, the two ships set sail again. After traveling only 100 leagues beyond Land's End in Cornwall, the Speedwell again claimed to have sprung a leak. Exactly what happened to the Speedwell is not known. It is known that at least two passengers, Thomas Blossom and a son, returned to Leiden.

It was later discovered that, in an attempt to escape their year-long contract, the crew of the Speedwell sabotaged the ship. Eleven passengers of the Speedwell boarded the Mayflower while the remaining 20 returned to London. Finally, without the Speedwell, the Mayflower and her 103 passengers left for The New World alone.

A replacement for the Speedwell, The Fortune, eventually made landfall at Plymouth Colony one year after the Mayflower left. One of the original passengers, Philippe DeLannoy, made the journey aboard The Fortune.

In 1656 the Speedwell made a transatlantic voyage at last, traveling from England to Boston with a party of Quakers. After arriving in Massachusetts Bay Colony, the passengers were deported for religious reasons and forced to return to Britain.

Two ships after the Speedwell bore the same name. One was a Royal Navy ship of the line during the Napoleonic Wars, the other was a modern nuclear submarine.





Collaboration


Comments: 1

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.
Information about the 1656 voyage: A Lyst of the Pasingers abord the Speedwell of Sondon, Robert Lock Master, Bound for New England, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register]], (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass., 1847) Vol. 1, Page 132 https://books.google.com/books?id=KG4FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA132
posted by Rick Pierpont

Categories: Mayflower Project