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Winthrop Family Papers

Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 2

Saterday 5:

5 June 1630

mundaye 7:

7 June 1630
June 1630 Lordes day 6:
Winthrop, John

1630-06-06

The winde n: E: and after n: a good gale, but still foggye at tymes, and Colde. we stood w: n: w: bothe to make cape Sable if we might, and also because of the Current, which neere the west shoare settes to the S: that we might be the more cleere from the Southerne shoales. viz of Cape Cod.1

About 2: in the after noone we sounded, and had grounde at about 80: fat hom and the miste then breakinge vp we sawe the shore to the n: about 5: or 6: leagues off. and were (as we supposed) to the w s: w: of cape Sable, and in 43: ¼. towardes night it calmed and was foggye againe, and the winde came S: and by E: we tacked and stood w: and by n: intendinge to make lande at Aquamenticus 2 beinge to the n: of the Iles of Shoales .

 1.

See Ware, “Winthrop's Course,” Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, XII. 197.

 2.

York, Maine; this is in different ink of a paler color: the capital A is not certainly Winthrop's. Having made his landfall at Cape Sable, and verified his position, it was evidently Captain Milborne's intention to sail straight across the Gulf of Maine on the same parallel, in order to avoid the Georges Shoals. The westerly winds prevented this.