The Mayflower: England’s Doomsday Ship
Historically, before trains, planes or automobiles, sailing was the choice way to travel far distances and it was the sole method for transporting goods and supplies around the ancient world. At times of war sea borne ships were the most strategic weapon in all military strategies. Among the millions of boats that were built, maritime history identifies one single English ship that instigated a war resulting in the deaths of 50 to 100 million people. This was not a war ship transporting soldiers, torpedo’s or depth charges, but Christian pilgrims. This is the story of the Mayflower, and the voyage that would change the shape of North America.

Acquisition of the Mayflower
In 1620 AD the Mayflower transported English Separatists and Puritans (pilgrims) to the New World, who went on to establish the first British colonies in America. According to Nathaniel Philbrick’s New York Times bestseller, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War, the pilgrims originated from England and Leiden, in Holland, and he explains the circumstances that led to the secretive Separatist group leaving their homelands for a land in which they might worship God in their own way, free from the dogma of the church and English government.
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