know that he was ashore all that day, with most of his men.  It is by no means improbable that Captain Jones had shipped one of his kinsmen in his crew, possibly as one of the “masters mates” or quartermasters referred to (and it is by no means certain that there were not more than two), though these witnesses may have been quartermasters or other petty officers left on board as “ship-keepers.”  Certain it is that these two witnesses must have been of the crew, and that “Christopher Joanes” was not the Captain, while it is equally sure, from the collateral evidence, that Master Mullens died on shipboard.  Had he died on shore it is very certain that some of the leaders, Brewster, Bradford, or others, would have been witnesses, with such of the ship’s officers as could aid in proving the will in England.  It is equally evident that the officers of the ship were absent when Master Mullens dictated his will, except perhaps the surgeon.

The number of seamen belonging to the ship is nowhere definitely stated.  At least four in the employ of the Pilgrims were among the passengers and not enrolled upon the ships’ lists.  From the size of the ship, the amount of sail she probably carried, the weight of her anchors, and certain other data which appear,—­such as the number allowed to leave the ship at a time, etc.,—­it is probably not a wild estimate to place their number at from twenty to twenty-five.  This is perhaps a somewhat larger number than would be essential to work the ship, and than would have been shipped if the voyage had been to any port of a civilized country; but on a voyage to a wild coast, the possibilities of long absence and of the weakening of the crew by death, illness, etc., demanded consideration and a larger number.  The wisdom and necessity of carrying, on a voyage to an uninhabited country, some spare men, is proven by the record of Bradford, who says:  “The disease begane to fall amongst them the seamen also, so as allmost halfe of their company dyed before they went away and many of their officers and lustyest men; as ye boatson, gunner, 3 quarter maisters, the cooke, and others.”

The lady ARBELLA, the “Admiral” of Governor Winthrop’s fleet, a ship of 350 tons, carried 52 men, and it is a fair inference that the may-Flower, of a little more than half her tonnage, would require at least half as many.  It is, therefore, not unlikely that the officers and crew of the may-Flower, all told, mustered thirty men, irrespective of the sailors, four in number (Alderton, English, Trevore, and Ely), in the Pilgrims’ employ.

CHAPTER VI

THE MAY-FLOWER’S PASSENGERS

The passenger list of the Speedwell has given us the names of the Leyden members of the company which, with the cooperation of the associated Merchant Adventurers, was, in the summer of 1620, about to emigrate to America.