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THE MARINE RECORD. FEBRUARY 27, A TRUSCOTT BOAT SIMPLE, SAFE, lighting. RELIABLE, SPEEDY. It may be possible to build better and safer boats, but it hasn’t been done yet. é We send a completely illustrated catalogue and price list free, which tells you all about boats and WHY TRUSCOTT BOATS EXCEL. Truscott Boat Mfg. Co., ST. JOSEPH, MICH. Pintsch Gas Lighted Buoys. Adopted by the English, German, French, Russian, Italian and United States Light-House Departments for channel and harbor | Over 1,000 gas buoys and gas beacons in service. — Burn Continuously from 80 to 365 days and nights without attention, and can be seen a distance of six miles. ...... THE SAFETY CAR HEATING AND LIGHTING 160 Broadway, New York City. Controlled by WAS IT THE MAYFLOWER ? It has come at last. We have been expecting it for several years, scarcely daring to breathe our suspicions above a whisper for fear of the charge of blasphemy; and yet we have felt tnat it was only a question of time before the iconoclast should raise the question: Did the Pilgrims come to this country in the Mayflower? A correspondent of the Boston T'ranscript—of all papers! —is of the opinion that there is no proof extant that gives the makers of history the right to state that the Pilgrim Fathers reached these shores on the Mayflower, and he says this boldly, too, in face of the fact that every family in New England boasts of an ancestor who purchased a ticket for the first voyage of the Mayflower, and that every home in New England rejoices in a set of bed-room furniture that was brought over on the good ship, which must have had a freight capacity greater than that of a dozen Great Easterns. A little volume entitled ‘“May- flower Essays,” written by the Rey. G. C. Blaxland, at one time domestic chaplain to the bishop of London, and as stich custodian for some years of the original Brad- ford manuscripts, contains a brief note to the effect that in no place in his narrative does Governor Bradford record the name of the vessel in which the first party of Plymouth colonists madé their voyage. In all the Bradford manu- scripts, detailed as they are in other particulars, the two vessels of the expedition are referred to as the “smaller ship” and the “bigger ship,’ but nowhere is the name of either given. In one place only does Governor Bradford record the name of the ship Mayflower, and this is not in allusion to the vessel in which the Pilgrims made their voyage. It appears in a letter fromea Mr. Shirley to Gov- ernor Bradford, which the latter inserts in his narrative, and refers to a vessel that conveyed a party of Massachu- setts colonists in the year 1629, nine years after the ini- tial voyage. The omission of the names of the two ves- sels in which the voyagers first set sail, according to the Transcript’s correspondent, and especially of that in which the voyage was actually made, is the more remarkable from the fact that elswhere in his narrative, Governor Bradford is careful to record the names of vessels employed by the colonists. We read of the Anne, the Paragon, the Chari- ty, the Fortune, the James, the Sparrow; but except in the instance already cited, the name of the Mayflower no- where appears in the narrative. Nor does it appear in the narratives of Bradford’s contemporaries. The first mention of the Mayflower in history is in Nathaniel Morton’s “New England Memorial,’ which was published in 1669, when its author was 53 years old. The writer was the son of George Morton, who came over to Massachusetts in 1623. His oldest son’ Nathaniel was 7 years old at the time. In the dedication of his work to the “Right Worshipful Thomas, Prince, Esq., governor of the jurisdiction of New Plymouth,” he confesses that the greatest part of his intelligence has been borrowed from his much honored uncle, William Bradford, and such manu- scriptsasheleftinhisstudy. Thereis, however,this variation: Whereas Governor Bradford says, “a’small ship of some sixty tons was bought and fitted in Holland.” Morton has interpolated the words, “called the Speedwell,’ and in a few words further on in making’a record of the larger ves- sel hired’ in London, he here also follows the governor’s phraseology, but interpolates the words, “called the May- flower.” This, then is the first mention in any historical record of the name of the vessel in which the Pilgrims made their first voyage, and this is made nearly fifty years later than the date of the voyage, and by a person whose infor- mation concerning the initial trip must have been second hand. That there was a ship called the Mayflower, en- gaged in the New England emigrant service is known be- yond peradventure. Bradford mentions her as bringing the colonists of 1629, but he says nothing about the name of the ship that brought the first colonists. Morton gives the names of the ships that started out on the first voyage as the Speedwell and the Mayflower, but he does not men- tion the Mayflower’s voyage of 1629. ‘Thomas Prince, in his “chronological History of New England,” makes men- tion of a ship Mayflower engaged in the New England emigrant service. He quotes the letter of Shirley to Brad- ford. recorded by the latter and likewise records the ar- rival at Charlestown in 1630 of a fleet of ships of which the Mayflower was one. But in afl these records there is no hint that this vessel was identical with that which brought the first party from Southampton. Governor Win- throp makes a similar record. ‘Therefore the iconoclast of the Transcript would raise the questions: “Why are Bradford and Winslow silent concerning the name of the vessel in which the colonists sailed? “Tf the Mayflower of 1620 and 1630 was the ship which brought over the original colonists, would it not have been natural for Bradford to have stated that fact in: his men- tion of that vessel? ‘“Might not Morton, writing in 1669, easily have for- gotten the name of the ship—if he had ever heard it—or might he not have easily confounded it with the vessel which brought the party of 1669? “Ts the testimony of later writers, who received their in- formation from Morton, more reliable than that of Mor- ton himself? “Tf the Mayflower of 1629 and 1630 was the Pilgrim ship, is it not remarkable that neither Bradford, nor Winslow, nor Morton, nor Mather, nor Winthrop, nor Prince men- tions such an interesting fact? f “Ts there, then, any direct evidence that the Mayflower was the ship in which the Pilgrims came to New England ?” ‘Lhese questions are, obviously, unanswerable in the light of such evidence that we have at command, but at least they serve no more useful purpose than hairs to be split by quibbling historians. It will take more than the ingenious arguments of an iconoclast to destroy our be- lief in the good ship Mayflower, and in all probability fu- ture generations will go on believing as we do. ‘There is more than a sentimental side to the subject, however; if it should be decided by documentary evidence of repute that the Pilgrim Fathers came to America on another ship, New England’s chief industry, the making of Mayflower furniture, would go into the hands of a receiver.—Roches- ter Post-Express. ee ae ay THe report on the Pacific cable urges government con- struction and ownership, and cites the fact that England for 50 years has been constantly acquiring by purchase and construction, cable communication with her vast posses- sions, until she has expended upwards of a hundred mil- lion dollars for this purpose, and operates her own cables connecting her colonies. England is now constructing a Pacific cable from Vancouver to Australia at a cost of nearly nine million doilars, and in orded to give her trades- men and manufacturers the benefit of this communication at the least possible expense, has fixed a rate of two shil- lings, or 50 cents per word cable messages from Vancouver and New Zealand. France, Germany and other ‘nations are not sleeping upon their rights, as the people of the United States have been,” comments Mr. Corliss, “but are establishing government telegraph communication with their respective possessions.” ——— OO 2 OS Owine to the success which has attended the construc- tion of the turbine passenger steamer “King Edward” upon the Clyde, another similar vessel is to be constructed. She is to be an improvement on the “King Edward” in every respect. She will exceed the dimensions of the latter vessel by 20 feet in length, 2 feet in beam and 1 foot in draft. Her speed will be 22 knots—25 miles. She will be placed upon the Clyde for traffic between Campbelltown via Fairlie and Glascow, and is to be completed in time for the pleasure traffic season for next year. Messrs. Denny Brothers, of Dumbarton, who built the “King Edward,” will also construct the new turbine steamer. CORRESPONDENCE. 8@-We do not hold ourselves responsiblein any way for the views or opinions expressed by our correspondents. It is our desire that all sides of any question affecting the interests or welfare of the lake ma- rine should be fairly represented in THE MARINE RECORD. CANAL VIEWS. The twenty-five representative business men in Toledo who recently decided that the abandonment of the Miami and Erie canal would be detrimental to the best interests of that city were right. Not only would it be inimical to Toledo and the peerless country through which it passes, but all the extensive and producing country tributary to the Great Lakes. Hon. C. P. Griffin referred to the ex- pectation that a ship canal would follow the Miami and Erie route and that the government would soon be forced to act upon the idea. He said the canal was a paying in- stitution. C. K. Hague and Mayor Jones both opposed the abandoning the canal and referred to a syndicate that de- sired to possess the land now covered by the St. Mary’s reservoir. Deepening the canal ten feet would give the 70,000,000 tonnage ofthe Great Lakes access to tidewater and also allow the 15,000,000 tonnage of the Ohio river and tributaries to load their cargoes on the docks of any of the ports of the Great Lakes. The splendid ships built at Toledo and other shipyards on the Great Lakes for ocean commerce now have to go through a foreign country to reach tidewater. For the wealthiest nation on the globe the situation is not creditable. The above from the Wauseon, O., Republican indicates that some of the business men of the lake ports are awak- ening. One quarter of the money it is proposed to ex- pend on the Isthmus canal would provide a deep water way from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and be infinitely more beneficial than all the Isthmus canals. The country from the head of Lake Erie to the gulf is the richest an most resourceful on the globe.—Jeffersonian. P< orl LATEST MARINE.PATENTS. 692,815. Mouthpiece for suction dredges. Lindon W. Bates, Chicago III. 692,845. Ball bearing row lock. ‘Thomas H. Garrett, Jr., Auburn, N. Y. 692,910. Propeller for vessels. Detlef H. Rohwedder, Chicago Il. 692,973. Hydraulic dredge. go, Ill. 693,007. Barrel tongs. Chester M. Baldwin, Bronson Mich., assignor of one-half to James H. Shaw, same place. 693,228. Boat adapted to be propelled on land or in the water. Samueu I. Brittain, Boston Mass. 693,235. Piling. Amasa B. Clark, New York, N. Y. 693,242. Apparatus for cleaning bottoms of ships. Rob- ert S. Culpepper, Houston Tex., assignor of two-thirds to Abnus B. Kerr and Ira M. Bryce, same place. : 693,272. Automatic driving mechanism for submarine boats. John P. Holland, Newark, N. J. Lindon W. Bates, Chica- 603,369. Wave motor. William S. Bryant, Cohasset, ass. 693,600. Steam pile driver. Johannes Grapengeter, Hamburg, Germany. 693,615. Swimming appliance. York, N. Y. —— a Se Ferdinand Minkus, New Seamen—Incompetency—Right of Master to Discharge— The fact that a mariner is found after a trial not to be ~ CO. competent to perform the services for which he engaged, ia in a satisfactory manner, will not justify the master in discharging him in a distant port, before the expiration 0 his term o1 service, but he may be put te a different service and a proper deduction be made from his wages. Capillo vs. Bristol Packing Co., 112 Fed, Rep. (U. S.) 430.