Also see sister article: Passengers of 1621 Fortune voyage
In the fall of 1621 the Fortune was the second English ship destined for Plymouth Colony in the New World, one year after the voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Financed as the Mayflower was by Thomas Weston and others of the London-based Merchant Adventurers, Fortune was to transport thirty-five settlers to the colony on a ship that was much smaller than Mayflower. The Fortune required two months to prepare for the voyage and once underway, reached Cape Cod on 9 November 1621 and the colony itself in late November. The ship was unexpected by those in the Plymouth colony and although it brought useful settlers, many of whom were young men, it brought no supplies, further straining the limited food resources of the colony. The ship only stayed in the colony for about three weeks, returning to England in December loaded with valuable furs and other goods. But when nearing England, instead of heading to the English Channel, a navigation error caused the ship to sail southeast to the coast of France, where it was overtaken and seized by a French warship.
The Fortune finally arrived back in London in February 1622, over two months after leaving Plymouth, but without its valuable cargo. In the end, Weston lost his total investment in the Fortune voyage making it worthwhile only in providing the Plymouth colony with new settlers, some of whom became notable persons in the history of the colony.
Preparing for the voyage
At 55 tons displacement, and about one-third the tonnage of the Mayflower, the Fortune was tasked with delivering thirty-five new settlers to Plymouth Colony. Their leader was Robert Cushman who, in 1620, had been the Leiden agent in London for the Mayflower and Speedwell. It is believed that the majority of the passengers of the Fortune were gathered together in London by Thomas Weston and his partner. And although William Bradford stated that there were thirty-five persons on board Fortune, the names of only twenty-eight persons are noted as receiving lots credited to those arriving as noted in the 1623 Division of Land. Eighteen persons are known to have been unmarried, eight married, but emigrating without their families, and as far as can be determined, Mrs. Martha Ford may have been the only woman on the ship. Although it is possible some of the missing seven persons in the passenger count were wives, Bradford does not leave that impression in his account.
Per author Charles Banks, individual records show that sixteen of the passengers can definitely be assigned to London or districts of the city such as Stepney and Southwark. Another three passengers were from Leiden in Holland. Ten more passengers, whose origins cannot be determined, either died early or left the colony as determined by who was listed in the 1627 Division of Cattle, which also doubled as a type of census.
Fortune arrival in the New World
Although the Fortune arrived in the Cape Cod area on 9 November 1621, the ship strangely remained at the tip of the Cape for some time which caused the natives to be alarmed, thinking it might be a hostile French vessel. Upon hearing reports of this strange vessel, Governor Bradford had Myles Standish arm his militia and load the cannon on Burial Hill in case of an attack by the French. It took the ship several weeks to find Plymouth and when the Fortune at last finally entered Plymouth Bay, she was seen to be a friendly English ship and the settlers were delighted and much relieved. But during the transit from Cape Cod to Plymouth the passengers were shocked by the barren and bleak shoreline, much as the Mayflower passengers had been. The Fortune passengers found it hard to believe that anything could exist in such a forbidding land. Per Bradford, "..and they saw nothing but a naked and barren place.." And when they saw the depressing conditions within the colony being experienced by the settlers, they became quite panicked. The passengers were so disheartened and had such misgivings about this place they even advised the ship's master they wanted to re-embark and leave if the colony did not meet their expectations, but were talked out of such action by the master and ship's crew although they were promised that if need be, they would be taken down the coast to Virginia.