Before They Went Ashore: The Mayflower
Quick answer: Why did the Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact before landing?
Storms drove the Mayflower far north of its intended Hudson River destination to Cape Cod, outside the bounds of Virginia. At the moment they had every reason to fly apart, the passengers bound themselves to one another with a written promise before going ashore. John calls that the harder and better founding story.
The Mayflower was never meant to sail alone. Her companion, the Speedwell, leaked so badly that on September 6, 1620, the passengers crowded aboard one ship and set out late in the season across the North Atlantic. They were about a hundred and two people, mostly families: farmers, weavers, servants, and many children, packed into one low, dark room between decks. Storms beat them for weeks. John Howland was swept overboard and lived only because he caught a trailing rope. A main beam cracked, and they forced it back with an iron jack meant for raising houses they hadn't built yet. Sixty-six days out, they sighted the wrong land, Cape Cod, far north of where they meant to settle. At the moment they had every reason to fly apart, they bound themselves together with a promise. John's point is for now: they didn't hold together because they agreed about everything. They held because the only thing worse than being bound to people you argue with is being alone in the water.
Why it matters for leaders: Teams that disagree can still hold together if they've made a clear promise to come through the crossing as one.
Q: How did the Mayflower survive a cracked beam?
A: Passengers used a great iron screw, a jack brought for building houses, to force the bowed main beam back up and brace it.
Q: Who was John Howland?
A: A young man swept overboard in a gale who survived by grabbing a trailing rope; the crew hauled him back with a boat hook.
Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/before-they-went-ashore-the-mayflower
By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation