The Mayflower is first recorded in 1609, at which time it was a merchant ship travelling to Baltic ports,  most notably Norway.  It was at that time owned by CHristopher Nichols, Richard Child, Thomas Short and Christopher Jones.  The ship was about 180 tonsm, and rested in Harwich.  In its early years it was emplyoed in transportation of tar, lumber, and fish and possibly did some Greenland Whaling.  Later on inits life, it became employed in Mediterranean wine and spice trading.

In 1620, Thomas Weston assisted by John Carver and Robert Cushman hired the Mayflower and the Speedwell to undertake the voyage to plant a colony in Northern Virginia.  The Speedwell turned out to be a leaky ship, and so was unable to make the famous voyage with the Mayflower.

Christopher Jones was the captain of the Mayflower when it took the Pilgrims to New England in 1620.  They anchored off the tip of Cape Cod on November 11, 1620.  The Mayflower stayed in America that winter, and its crew suffered the effects of the first winter  just as the Pilgrims did, with almost half dying.

The Mayflower set sail for home on April 5, 1621, arriving back May 6th.  The ship made few more trading runs, to Spain, Ireland and lastly to France.  However, Captain Christopher Jones died shortly thereafter, and was buried 5 March 1621/2 in Rotherhithe, Surrey, England.  The ship lay dormant for about two years, at which point it was appraised for probate, and its value was determained to be 128-08-04 pounds, an extremely low value (had it been in sailing condition, 700 pounds could be expected).

This probate inventory is the last record of the Mayflower.  The ship was not in very good condition, being called "in ruinis" in a 1624 High Court of Admiralty record written in Latin.  Ships in that condition were more valuable as wood (which was in shortage in Egland at the time), so the Mayflower was most likely broken apart and sold as scrap. There is no evidence that the Mayflower ended up as the Jordans barn, through it has become a tourist trap anyway.

Mayflower was a very common ship name, and in fact numerous other ships called the Mayflower made trips to New England; but none of them were the same ship that brought the Pilgrims to America.
 

Dimensions

The exact dimensions of the Mayflower are unknown.  No contemporary pictures, paintings, or  detailed descriptions of the Mayflower exist today.  However, the ship is known to have had a burthen of 180-tons.  From this fact, experts in the 17th century merchant vessel constructions have estimated the size of the Mayflower to have been about 133 feet long from the back raail to the end of the bowspirt beak.  The keel was about 64 feet and a board width of about 25 feet.  In 1928 a model for the Mayflower was constructed by R.C. Anderson, an expert in 17th century merchant vesseld.  The Mayflower II is usually anchored at Plymouth as a tourist attraction, and available for touring.  It is currently maintained in sailing condition by the Plymouth Plantation Museum.

The Mayflower Voyage

Departure:
The Mayflower embarked from Southampton, England on 5 August 1620.  She was subsequently forced into Dartmouth because her consort ship, the Speedwell, was leaking.  After mending, the Mayflower set sail about 22 August 1620 but was again forced back, this time to Plymouth, because of problems with the Speedwell.  The Speedwell was abandoned at this point, twenty of her passengers returning home and the remaining compacting onto the Mayflower.  The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620. 

Arrival:
The Mayflower crew sighted land off Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, and first landfall was made November 11, 1620. 

Deistance and Time:
The voyage from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Harbor is about 2,750 miles, and took the Mayflower 66 days to cover that distance.  The Mayflower's return voyage, incidentally, only took a month. 

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