It is evident, however, from John Robinson's letter of June 14, 1620, to John Carver, that Weston ridiculed the transaction, probably on selfish grounds, but, as events proved, not without some justification.
Robinson says: "Master Weston makes himself merry with our endeavors about buying a ship," [the SPEEDWELL] "but we have done nothing in this but with good reason, as I am persuaded." Although bought with funds raised in Holland,
[Arber (The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, p. 341) arrives at the conclusion that "The SPEEDWELL had been bought with Leyden money. The proceeds of her sale, after her return to London, would, of course, go to the credit of the common joint-Stock there." This inference seems warranted by Robinson's letter of June 16/26 to Carver, in which he clearly indicates that the Leyden brethren collected the "Adventurers" subscriptions of Pickering and his partner (Greene), which were evidently considerable.]
it was evidently upon "joint-account," and she was doubtless so sold, as alleged, on her arrival in September, at London, having proved unseaworthy. In fact, the only view of this transaction that harmonizes with the known facts and the respective rights and relations of the parties is, that permission was obtained (perhaps through Edward Pickering, one of the Adventurers, a merchant of Leyden, and others that the Leyden leaders should buy and refit the consort, and in so doing might expend the funds which certain of the Leyden Pilgrims were to pay into the enterprise, which it appears they did,—and for which they would receive, as shown, extra shares in the Planters' half-interest. It was very possibly further permitted by the Adventurers, that Mr. Pickering's and his partners' subscriptions to their capital stock should be applied to the purchase of the SPEEDWELL, as they were collected by the Leyden leaders, as Pastor Robinson's letter of June 14/24 to John Carver, previously noted, clearly shows.
She was obviously bought some little time before May 31, 1620,—probably in the early part of the month,—from the fact that in their letter of May 31st to Carver and Cushman, then in London, Messrs. Fuller, Winslow, Bradford, and Allerton state that "we received divers letters at the coming of Master Nash and our Pilott," etc. From this it is clear that time enough had elapsed, since their purchase of the pinnace, for their messenger (Master Nash) to go to London,—evidently with a request to Carver and Cushman that they would send over a competent "pilott" to refit her, and for Nash to return with him, while the letter announcing their arrival does not seem to have been immediately written.
The writers of the above-mentioned letter use the words "we received,"— using the past tense, as if some days before, instead of "we have your letters," or "we have just received your letters," which would rather indicate present, or recent, time. Probably some days elapsed after the "pilott's" arrival, before this letter of acknowledgment was sent. It is hence fair to assume that the pinnace was bought early in May, and that no time was lost by the Leyden party in preparing for the exodus, after their negotiations with the Dutch were "broken off" and they had "struck hands" with Weston, sometime between February 2/12, 1619/20, and April 1/11, 1620,—probably in March.
The consort was a pinnace—as vessels of her class were then and for many years called—of sixty tons burden, as already stated, having two masts, which were put in—as we are informed by Bradford, and are not allowed by Professor Arber to forget—as apart of her refitting in Holland. That she was "square-rigged," and generally of the then prevalent style of vessels of her size and class, is altogether probable. The name pinnace was applied to vessels having a wide range in tonnage, etc., from a craft of hardly more than ten or fifteen tons to one of sixty or eighty. It was a term of pretty loose and indefinite adaptation and covered most of the smaller craft above a shallop or ketch, from such as could be propelled by oars, and were so fitted, to a small ship of the SPEEDWELL'S class, carrying an armament.
None of the many representations of the SPEEDWELL which appear in historical pictures are authentic, though some doubtless give correct ideas of her type. Weir's painting of the "Embarkation of the Pilgrims," in the Capitol at Washington (and Parker's copy of the same in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth); Lucy's painting of the "Departure of the Pilgrims," in Pilgrim Hall; Copes great painting in the corridor of the British Houses of Parliament, and others of lesser note, all depict the vessel on much the same lines, but nothing can be claimed for any of them, except fidelity to a type of vessel of that day and class. Perhaps the best illustration now known of a craft of this type is given in the painting by the Cuyps, father and son, of the "Departure of the Pilgrims from Delfshaven," as reproduced by Dr. W. E. Griffis, as the frontispiece to his little monograph, "The Pilgrims in their Three Homes." No reliable description of the pinnace herself is known to exist, and but few facts concerning her have been gleaned. That she was fairly "roomy" for a small number of passengers, and had decent accommodations, is inferable from the fact that so many as thirty were assigned to her at Southampton, for the Atlantic voyage (while the MAY-FLOWER, three times her tonnage, but of greater proportionate capacity, had but ninety), as also from the fact that "the chief [i.e. principal people] of them that came from Leyden went in this ship, to give Master Reynolds content." That she mounted at least "three pieces of ordnance" appears by the testimony of Edward Winslow, and they probably comprised her armament.
We have seen that Bradford notes the purchase and refitting of this "smale ship of 60 tune" in Holland. The story of her several sailings, her "leakiness," her final return, and her abandonment as unseaworthy, is familiar. We find, too, that Bradford also states in his "Historie," that "the leakiness of this ship was partly by her being overmasted and too much pressed with sails." It will, however, amaze the readers of Professor Arber's generally excellent "Story of the Pilgrim Fathers," so often referred to herein, to find him sharply arraigning "those members of the Leyden church who were responsible for the fitting of the SPEEDWELL," alleging that "they were the proximate causes of most of the troubles on the voyage [of the MAY-FLOWER] out; and of many of the deaths at Plymouth in New England in the course of the following Spring; for they overmasted the vessel, and by so doing strained her hull while sailing." To this straining, Arber wholly ascribes the "leakiness" of the SPEEDWELL and the delay in the final departure of the MAYFLOWER, to which last he attributes the disastrous results he specifies. It would seem that the historian, unduly elated at what he thought the discovery of another "turning-point of modern history," endeavors to establish it by such assertions and such partial references to Bradford as would support the imaginary "find." Briefly stated, this alleged discovery, which he so zealously announces, is that if the SPEEDWELL had not been overmasted, both she and the MAY-FLOWER would have arrived early in the fall at the mouth of the Hudson River, and the whole course of New England history would have been entirely different. Ergo, the "overmasting" of the SPEEDWELL was a "pivotal point in modern history." With the idea apparently of giving eclat to this announcement and of attracting attention to it, he surprisingly charges the responsibility for the "overmasting" and its alleged dire results upon the leaders of the Leyden church, "who were," he repeatedly asserts, "alone responsible." As a matter of fact, however, Bradford expressly states (in the same paragraph as that upon which Professor Arber must wholly base his sweeping assertions) that the "overmasting" was but "partly" responsible for the SPEEDWELL'S leakiness, and directly shows that the "stratagem" of her master and crew, "afterwards," he adds, "known, and by some confessed," was the chief cause of her leakiness.
Cushman also shows, by his letter,—written after the ships had put back into Dartmouth,—a part of which Professor Arber uses, but the most important part suppresses, that what he evidently considers the principal leak was caused by a very "loose board" (plank), which was clearly not the result of the straining due to "crowding sail," or of "overmasting." (See Appendix.)