Clearly Lord Baltimore's original plan for organizing
settlers on manors simply did not work where so much
land was available and people were so few. He needed to
encourage poor men as well as rich to take up land, and
hence pay the quit rents that provided him with a return.
For those adventurous men and women who departed
on the Ark that day of gentle winds in November 1633,
there was indeed a real prospect of good fortune, if they
managed not to die too soon.⁴³

Preparations for the Voyage

   How many people actually went to Maryland? Lord
Baltimore once spoke of 300 settlers, but this is certainly
an exaggeration. On another occasion he stated that his
ships had carried about 200 people, which, if the crews
are included, seems plausible. One hundred and twenty-
eight unnamed people took the oath of allegiance to the
king as the ships left Gravesend, just below London.
Since most English Catholics were willing to take this
oath, all but the three Jesuits may have done so. The
Ark had a crew of forty and the Dove a crew of seven.
In all by this count, 178 people sailed. But the number
rises to 195 if the Catholic gentlemen adventurers avoided
taking the oath. Of these 195 passengers and crew the
intended colonists would have numbered 148.⁴⁴ The
number of would-be settlers, then, falls between about
130 and 150.

   Transporting approximately one hundred and fifty
colonists with equipment and supplies for one year took
considerable planning. Lord Baltimore chartered the
Ark, a very large ship for the time, one built both to be a
merchant ship and for use by the royal navy if needed in