"snow" of the oldest pattern, while others depict her as a full-rigged
ship, sometimes having the auxiliary rig of a small "jigger" or "dandy-
mast," with square or lateen sail, on peak of stern, or on the bow sprit,
or both, though usually her mizzenmast is set well aft upon the poop.
There is no reason for thinking that the former of these auxiliaries
existed upon the MAY-FLOWER, though quite possible. Her 180 tons
measurement indicates, by the general rule of the nautical construction
of that period, a length of from 90 to 100 feet, "from taffrail to
knighthead," with about 24 feet beam, and with such a hull as this, three
masts would be far more likely than two. The fact that she is always
called a "ship"--to which name, as indicating a class, three masts
technically attach--is also somewhat significant, though the term is
often generically used. Mrs. Jane G. Austin calls the MAY-FLOWER a
"brig," but there does not appear anywhere any warrant for so doing.

At the Smithsonian Institution (National Museum) at Washington, D. C.,
there is exhibited a model of the MAY-FLOWER, constructed from the ratio
of measurements given in connection with the sketch and working plans of
a British ship of the merchant MAY-FLOWER class of the seventeenth
century, as laid down by Admiral Francois Edmond Paris, of France, in his
"Souvenirs de Marine." The hull and rigging of this model were carefully
worked out by, and under the supervision of Captain Joseph W. Collins
(long in the service of the Smithsonian Institution, in nautical and
kindred matters, and now a member of the Massachusetts Commission of
Inland Fisheries and Game), but were calculated on the erroneous basis of
a ship of 120 instead of 180 tons measurement. This model, which is upon
a scale of 1/2 inch to 1 foot, bears a label designating it as "The
'MAYFLOWER' of the Puritans" [sic], and giving the following description
(written by Captain Collins) of such a vessel as the Pilgrim ship, if of
120 tons burthen, as figured from such data as that given by Admiral