On the deck of the Mayflower, Rush Revere and his student Tommy are confronted by a hostile sailor who despises the Puritans. Suddenly, Rush’s time-traveling horse, Liberty, appears, snorts on the sailor, and vanishes. Soon after, they are greeted by the Pilgrim leader William Bradford and his wife, Dorothy Bradford. William describes the ship’s layout and explains the difficult journey, noting how the failure of their second ship, the Speedwell, reduced the original group of nearly 150 Puritans to about fifty who ultimately continued the voyage as Saints. He clarifies the passenger list is now about fifty “Saints” (Puritans) and fifty “Strangers” (other colonists).

William leads them below to the crowded and foul-smelling “tween deck,” where most passengers live. There, they meet Captain Myles Standish, the colony’s military officer, as he scolds the two young Billington boys for frightening other children with a story about a giant shark. During a sudden, violent storm, an alarm sounds for a man overboard. Back on the upper deck, they meet the ship’s master, Captain Christopher Jones, and witness the rescue of John Howland, a passenger who survived by clinging to a trailing rope.