I love history. Really, ANY history. The problem with history is that I have a hard time teaching it to my kids sometimes. I fear that in a microwave society where everything is about the next minute, what happened 300 years ago sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.
There are a ton of blogs out there on homeschool sites right now talking about activities surrounding the “Being thankful” theme, so I wanted to do something different. As always, I can teach almost subject as long as I can relate it to severe weather, so let’s take a look at Thanksgiving weather and see if we can find a way to teach history to the kiddies during the holiday week ahead…
We can pull almost any book off the shelf in our homes and quickly show the children that the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock, but can we tell them why?
The Pilgrims actually made the decision to land on the shores of Massachusetts because of the weather! At the time that the ship was was passing the southeastern tip of Cape Cod, the wind and waves pushed the crews to make landfall to save the ship from the turbulent seas! You see, the folks on the Mayflower originally intended on going all the way to New York Harbor. The Mayflower only weighed about 180 tons, which seems large, but if you compare it to ships of today was actually not large at all! On November 19, 1620, the ship found itself in the dangerous shoals east of Monomoy Point.
There are a ton of blogs out there on homeschool sites right now talking about activities surrounding the “Being thankful” theme, so I wanted to do something different. As always, I can teach almost subject as long as I can relate it to severe weather, so let’s take a look at Thanksgiving weather and see if we can find a way to teach history to the kiddies during the holiday week ahead…
We can pull almost any book off the shelf in our homes and quickly show the children that the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock, but can we tell them why?
The Pilgrims actually made the decision to land on the shores of Massachusetts because of the weather! At the time that the ship was was passing the southeastern tip of Cape Cod, the wind and waves pushed the crews to make landfall to save the ship from the turbulent seas! You see, the folks on the Mayflower originally intended on going all the way to New York Harbor. The Mayflower only weighed about 180 tons, which seems large, but if you compare it to ships of today was actually not large at all! On November 19, 1620, the ship found itself in the dangerous shoals east of Monomoy Point.
MONOMOY POINT
With a south wind, the Pilgrims were able to backtrack northward and using the wind for two more days finally made it to Provincetown Harbor after 65 days at sea! According to historical reports, the Pilgrims knew they were in trouble, for the weather had forced them to land in a place they were very unfamiliar with no place for them to take shelter. The reputation of the North American winters had been widely spread back home…
While the winter was mild that year, the beginning of December was not. This made it very difficult for the Pilgrims to explore the strange land they had “found” by way of foul weather. By December 7th, the ground was covered with snow and frozen solid. Some reports say the snow was at least 6 inches deep. As if things could not get worse, the wind became so bad on the 17th of December that old journals say the Pilgrims were coated with ice from the ocean spray.
Imagine wind, snow and ice in New England in mid-December! Remember, there was no place to live!
Exploration parties were formed and they went out in search of shelter and on the 18th, it began to snow and rain. YUCK! The search for a sheltered location continued through December 18 and 19 when the decision was made to actually land the boat at Plymouth Rock, thus ending the trip on December 21 from a small rowboat and not from the larger Mayflower.
For the record, the Pilgrims stepped foot on a sandy beach despite the location’s name!
Why the rowboat? With wicked weather and an unknown land ahead, the women and children were left on the Mayflower and only ten men rowed to shore. Hostile natives were definitely a concern…
Once satisfied that Plymouth Rock was the best place to weather the new world’s weather, the small crew went back to the Mayflower and everyone came to Plymouth on the Mayflower on December 26 where a decision was made to start the colony right there.
With a south wind, the Pilgrims were able to backtrack northward and using the wind for two more days finally made it to Provincetown Harbor after 65 days at sea! According to historical reports, the Pilgrims knew they were in trouble, for the weather had forced them to land in a place they were very unfamiliar with no place for them to take shelter. The reputation of the North American winters had been widely spread back home…
While the winter was mild that year, the beginning of December was not. This made it very difficult for the Pilgrims to explore the strange land they had “found” by way of foul weather. By December 7th, the ground was covered with snow and frozen solid. Some reports say the snow was at least 6 inches deep. As if things could not get worse, the wind became so bad on the 17th of December that old journals say the Pilgrims were coated with ice from the ocean spray.
Imagine wind, snow and ice in New England in mid-December! Remember, there was no place to live!
Exploration parties were formed and they went out in search of shelter and on the 18th, it began to snow and rain. YUCK! The search for a sheltered location continued through December 18 and 19 when the decision was made to actually land the boat at Plymouth Rock, thus ending the trip on December 21 from a small rowboat and not from the larger Mayflower.
For the record, the Pilgrims stepped foot on a sandy beach despite the location’s name!
Why the rowboat? With wicked weather and an unknown land ahead, the women and children were left on the Mayflower and only ten men rowed to shore. Hostile natives were definitely a concern…
Once satisfied that Plymouth Rock was the best place to weather the new world’s weather, the small crew went back to the Mayflower and everyone came to Plymouth on the Mayflower on December 26 where a decision was made to start the colony right there.
PLYMOUTH
The winter of 1620-'21 was "a calm winter, such as was never seen here since," wrote Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay in 1630. Edward Winslow, one of the original Pilgrims, also wrote about the "remarkable mildness" of that first winter in “Good Newes From New England” published in 1624. There was testimony by others to a mild end of December, a moderate January, a brief cold spell with sleet and some snow in early February, followed by definitely mild conditions and an early spring.
The winter of 1620-'21 was "a calm winter, such as was never seen here since," wrote Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay in 1630. Edward Winslow, one of the original Pilgrims, also wrote about the "remarkable mildness" of that first winter in “Good Newes From New England” published in 1624. There was testimony by others to a mild end of December, a moderate January, a brief cold spell with sleet and some snow in early February, followed by definitely mild conditions and an early spring.
Despite the generally warmer than normal conditions, almost half of the original passengers and crew of the Mayflower succumbed to disease during the first winter on the shores of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bay.
Could it have been because of their journey through bad weather as well? Records show that most of the Pilgrims came ashore with HORRIBLE coughs at Plymouth!
Many lived on board the Mayflower anchored a mile-and-a-half offshore and went to the land each day, weather permitting, to build adequate shelters. It was wet and windy most of that winter, but thankfully little snow came after the Pilgrims landed.
There are not many more records of the weather from the Pilgrim’s early days here, and it is thought that this was a marketing issue; you see, if they wrote home about harsh winters, nobody else would come!
Are you watching the weather this week in New England?
Look at the map of Massachusetts and journal this week’s weather! Could you have made the last of the journey? Would the Pilgrims have gotten a wind from the south this year? What would the weather have been this year for the Pilgrims? What’s the long term forecast for the next 30 days? How many obstacles did the Pilgrims face and how many of them were worsened because of weather?
What might have changed if the Pilgrims had landed at New York where there was businesses, shelter and trade already?
How many historical moments in history have been governed by weather?
