My name is Addy. It is 1620 and I am boarding the 

Mayflower. On the Mayflower there

are about 102 passengers heading for the 

New World because of religious deprivation. I 

am an English pilgrim. I am a Separatist, 

which means I believe that the Church of 

England broke biblical principles and some 

Christian people such as my family got offended. 

So now we are off to sea.   It will be a very 

dangerous voyage.

Once on board the Mayflower we were greeted 

by many people that were working on the ship. 

On a normal day we didn't get much air. We 

had to stay below deck. Many people got sick 

on this journey.

The ship is not very comfortable.   It is very 

crowded with few places for privacy.   I sleep in 

a hammock below deck with my mother and 

father.   Sometimes I cannot sleep from all the 

snoring.

On November sixteenth, everyone on the 

Mayflower, including my family, was rejoicing 

because we had found suitable land to anchor 

the boat! This land was called Plymouth. About 

a week after settling my father, William, and 

some other men started to build the colony 

houses. I felt happy that soon I would have a 

place to live, although it took quite a long 

time.  

During that first winter we faced some hard 

times. We had to build houses with the wood 

that was difficult to find. We had to gather all 

the food that we could. The problem was that 

there was heavy snow fall and freezing 

temperatures, which made it difficult to build 

our homes.   Many men were sick and chopping 

down trees was a difficult task.

It was so terrible that many people died or   got 

sick, including some of my friends and family. I 

heard father talking and he called it the "Great 

Sickness."   It was astonishing because only 

about 20 adults and 30 kids, including myself 

survived. Almost half of the crew died as well. 

I felt awful losing many of my new friends and 

hoped every night that things would get 

better.