Sailing to America

Getting onboard a ship and sailing from England to the early British colonies in America was a tremendous challenge. The ships were extremely crowded, unsanitary and the provisions were ghastly. Experienced sailors preferred to eat their biscuits in the dark so that they would not have to see the worms and bugs that infested them. A violent North Atlantic storm could arise at any time, tossing the ship about like a toy and creating the very real threat that it would be damaged. Yet, the people willingly boarded the ships and trekked to the unknown new world. This story is about the Puritans, a Protestant religious sect that questioned the religious authority of the British king. With the Puritans willing to leave, their departure allowed King Charles I to eliminate opposition without having to resort to extreme tactics. The Treadwell was one ship that transported a group of Puritans to the struggling American colony in Massachusetts and this is a brief story of the construction of the ship and their journey across the Atlantic. All of the arduous aspects of the trip are described, from the lack of personal space to the poor quality of the provisions to the sickness and occasional deaths. Written at the level of the middle years of elementary school, this is a book that describes in detail how hard life was for the people who chose to leave Europe and colonize America.