Remembering three great journeys

Thanksgiving is still four days away, but today actually marks the 380th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World.

Swirling currents and changeable climates of the North Atlantic make it an ocean of stark contrasts, peacefully beguiling one moment, elementally violent the next. Even today, its perfect storms regularly claim victims from among those mariners foolish enough to stretch their luck.

How much more fearsome was it in September 1620, when103 Pilgrim pioneers packed onto a three-masted, 180-ton merchant vessel slipped out of Plymouth Harbor on England's southwest coast for a 2,700-mile voyage across a still largely unknown void?

As most readers know, the Pilgrims were a group of English religious dissidents who had for 15 years been trying to separate themselves from the Church of England. They had tried to establish a settlement near the city of Leiden in Holland, but concern about being assimilated into the Dutch culture and pressures from King James I led the Separatists, as they were then known, to consider moving to the New World. Although the king refused to grant them a charter to start a colony there, he did promise not to stop them from trying.

Putting their plan into action, the Pilgrims hired the Mayflower along with its master and part owner, Christopher Jones, to transport them to America. Led by now familiar names such as William Bradford, William Bruster, Miles Standish and John Alden, their intent was to occupy a parcel of land they'd negotiated from the London Virginia Company. Since the Mayflower wasn't large enough to carry the entire group, the Pilgrims also purchased a second, smaller ship, the Speedwell, a sloop they planned to use as a fishing boat once they arrived in the New World.

Unfortunately, when the Pilgrims arrived at their embarkation point in Southampton, England, frustrating problems began to arise. Their money was running low, and it was discovered that the Speedwell was not seaworthy. Selling butter from their supplies to pay the Southampton port fees, the group moved to Plymouth Harbor, where they made one final, unsuccessful attempt to repair the Speedwell. Finally, the decision was made to load those who still wanted to make the voyage onto the Mayflower and sail before winter closed in.

On Sept. 16, they departed. Of the 102 passengers, only 41 were actually members of the Leiden church group. The remainder were hired men, paid servants, and other "strangers" desirous of making a new life in the New World.

Running against strong winter currents, the Pilgrim's progress across the Atlantic averaged a mere two miles an hour. Initial fair weather quickly turned foul, forcing passengers to spend most of their days in cramped, cold, unlit compartments that had been built on the Mayflower's mid-decks, little more than canvas partitions set around rudely constructed bunk beds.

Yet, despite all their anxieties and possible hazards, the 65-day voyage went largely without incident. On Nov. 19, the Pilgrims sighted the Cape Cod cliffs near where the Truro lighthouse now stands. Running out of food, firewood and fresh water, they decided to land, though they were hundreds of miles north of their destination.

They debated what to do for two days, and decided to find a place to go ashore. Before they did, however, 41 of the men, including the indentured servants, signed a document certifying that they were all freemen who agreed to abide by the laws of "such a government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose."

Less than 200 words long, the Mayflower Compact became the new colony's constitution. It was the first document in America to establish basic principles of democracy with equal justice for all.

One month later, the group moved to a more fertile, defensible position on the mainland, near the mouth of a river they named Plymouth. Landing there on Dec. 21, they quickly set about building a common shelter.

Unprepared for the harsh conditions of winter in their new homeland, the Pilgrims suffered mightily. By spring, nearly half the group had died. Only a treaty the Pilgrims reached in the spring with two local tribes, the Massasoit and Wampanoags, enabled the survivors to get crops in the ground.

In October 1621, the remaining Pilgrims and some 90 natives held a three-day feast of Thanksgiving for their first harvest, as well as for having survived their perilous passage and their first year in America.

Although many tribulations lay ahead for the colony, this feast became an occasion to remember. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving the nation's first national holiday, to be celebrated the fourth Thursday in November.

So as your family gathers around the table Thursday, it's appropriate to remember these intrepid travelers who planted democracy's first seed in America.

In these days of more rapid trans-Atlantic travel, we'd like to note anniversaries of two notable aeronautical achievements that also occur this week.

History records that it was on Nov. 21, 1783, that Jean Francis de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes became the first humans to fly, when they ascended in a hot air balloon, which had been built by two brothers, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier.

That flight lasted about 25 minutes and carried the two passengers some six miles over the city of Paris, drifting at the dizzying height of 300 feet. Among the amazed spectators was Benjamin Franklin, the newly appointed American ambassador to France.

The second event took place 152 years later in San Francisco harbor on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1935. Captain Edwin Musick of Pan American Airways pushed forward the throttle of his Martin 130 flying boat. The ungainly craft, christened the China Clipper, carried a crew of five and a ton of mail.

Nearly 20,000 people had gathered to see this first attempt to fly across the Pacific Ocean. The crowd included Juan Trippe, Pan Am's flamboyant founder. Millions more listened on live radio broadcasts around the globe.

When the China Clipper landed in Manila Harbor some 60 hours, 8,000 miles and five refueling stops later, more than 300,000 Filipinos were on hand to greet them.

In its day, this trans-Pacific flight was considered as significant an achievement as the first lunar landing would be just 34 years later.