September 16 : the Mayflower left England...

... 390 years ago :

the Mayflower was a ship

On her first voyage she travelled to the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts (U.S.A.). The ship left England in July of 1620, but turned around twice because Speedwell (the ship it was travelling with) was  leaking. She finally left on September 16 of the same year, leaving the Speedwell behind.

The ship carried 102 men, women and children, who lived in the dark, damp, cold cargo decks below the crew's quarters. Many of them died on the voyage.

After over two months at sea, the English colonists arrived at Cape Cod on November 11. A few weeks later, they sailed up the coast to Plymouth, and started to build their town. They lived on the ship for a few more months, rowing to shore to build houses in the day, and returning to the ship at night. Many people began to get very sick from the cold and the wet. About half the people on the Mayflower died that first winter from common illnesses (colds, coughs and fevers...).

In March of 1621,  there were enough houses for everyone to live on land and the Mayflower returned to England on April 5. In 1623, a year after Christopher Jones (master of the Mayflower) died, the ship was probably dismantled (taken apart) for firewood in England. [ adapted from Simple English Wikipedia  ]   

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Usually you use the pronoun "he" for a boy/man, "she" for a girl/woman, and "it" to name items, and inanimate beings (as animals). But for the word 'ship', you use "she"

Illustration : "Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor" by William Halsall (1882) -photo in the Public Domain