But one other officer in merchant ships of the may-Flower class in her day was dignified by the address of “Master” (or Mister), or had rank with the Captain and Mates as a quarter-deck officer,—­except in those instances where a surgeon or a chaplain was carried.  That the may-Flower carried no special ship’s-surgeon has been supposed from the fact of Dr. Fuller’s attendance alike on her passengers and crew, and the increased mortality of the seamen—­after his removal on shore.

     [The author is greatly indebted to his esteemed friend, Mr. George
     Ernest Bowman, Secretary-General of the Society of may-Flower
     Descendants, for information of much value upon this point.  He
     believes that he has discovered trustworthy evidence of the
     existence of a small volume bearing upon its title-page an
     inscription that would certainly indicate that the may-Flower had
     her own surgeon.  A copy of the inscription, which Mr. Bowman
     declares well attested (the book not being within reach), reads as
     follows:—­
               “To Giles Heale Chirurgeon,
                         from Isaac Allerton
                                   in Virginia. 
          Feb. 10, 1620.”

Giles Heale’s name will be recognized as that of one of the witnesses to John Carver’s copy of William Mullens’s nuncupative will, and, if he was the ship’s-surgeon, might very naturally appear in that relation.  If book and inscription exist and the latter is genuine, it would be indubitable proof that Heale (who was surely not a may-Flower passenger) was one of the ship’s company, and if a “chirurgeon,” the surgeon of the ship, for no other Englishmen, except those of the colonists and the ship’s company, could have been at New Plymouth, at the date given, and New England was then included in the term “Virginia.”  It is much to be hoped that Mr. Bowman’s belief may be established, and that in Giles Heale we shall have another known officer, the surgeon, of the may-Flower.]

That she had no chaplain goes without saying.  The Pilgrims had their spiritual adviser with them in the person of Elder Brewster, and were not likely to tolerate a priest of either the English or the Romish church on a vessel carrying them.  The officer referred to was the representative of the business interests of the owner or chartering-party, on whose account the ship made the voyage; and in that day was known as the “ship’s-merchant,” later as the “purser,” and in some relations as the “supercargo.”  No mention of an officer thus designated, belonging to the may-Flower, has ever been made by any writer, so far as known, and it devolves upon the author to indicate his existence and to establish, so far as possible, both this and his identity.