6. Mayflower carried about 102 passengers, and a crew of about 30
After transferring passengers and as much of the supplies as Mayflower could carry, Captain Jones finally got underway for the New World in September. Of the 102 passengers, 28 adults were members of the Leiden congregation, with their families and servants they made up less than half of those determined to settle in America. Bound for the mouth of the Hudson River, Jones encountered contrary winds and storms which forced him to the north. He had no way of knowing it, but the Gulf Stream current also carried him further north. Measurement of latitude at the time was difficult, that of longitude all but impossible. They were more than halfway across when a storm caused significant damage, cracking a structural beam which threatened the ship’s ability to survive.
John Alden and other sailors fashioned an iron support to reinforce the beam and Jones made the decision to sail on into the contrary westerly winds. The voyage took 66 days, most of them marked by high seas and increasing cold. Hot meals became a rarity, due to the need to extinguish the galley fires. Most of the passengers became sick, first with seasickness, and later with dysentery and diarrhea. In the midst of it all, Elizabeth Hopkins, wife of Stephen Hopkins, gave birth to a boy. His parents, with a nod to the conditions surrounding them, named him Oceanus. The infant survived the voyage, though he died in childhood, sometime before 1627.